Nigeria wants to join BRICS, but will it have the courage to dedollarize to achieve it?
Nigeria wants to join BRICS
The African giant would have liked to join BRICS in 2023, but its request was rejected during the 15th summit in Johannesburg.
Instead, Ethiopia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Saudi Arabia joined the bloc. Twenty countries, including Nigeria and Indonesia, applied to become members, with another twenty expressing interest.
It was a humiliation for Nigeria to see Ethiopia – whose economy is much smaller – get the ticket in its place. Especially since the country recently faced a civil war in the Tigray region.
However, Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that has never been colonized. The Horn of Africa has always challenged the West. And as the United States pressures it to privatize its banks, threatening to exclude it fromAGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act), Addis Ababa was able to stand up.
This political independence is a sine qua non condition for joining the club. We must show our credentials by working on the issue of payments in local currencies and connection to alternative payment networks to SWIFT.
In other words, becoming a member of BRICS requires significantly reducing one’s dependence on the dollar. For example, Russia has ousted the dollar from 95% of its trade with India and China.
Moscow, which chairs BRICS in 2024, has already reaffirmed the group’s dedollarization ambitions. All countries present at the Johannesburg summit have been invited to report on this at the next summit to be held in Russia.
Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist Femi Falana understands this well. The latter urged the Nigerian government on Tuesday to stop selling oil in dollars on Channels TV.
“The first step to strengthening the Naira is to ensure that foreign countries pay for Nigerian oil in our currency, not US dollars,” he said. “There are countries in the world that today insist that we no longer be tied to the US dollar. These countries are part of BRICS. »
For Femi Falana, Nigeria must stop denominating its oil in dollars if it wants to join the BRICS. “If it were up to me, my policy would be radical: I would sell Nigerian gas and crude oil in naira. Let those who want to buy our products buy naira. »
Iraq is another country interested in joining BRICS. Iraqi MPs are becoming increasingly vocal about the dedollarization of its oil sales. And why not sell it in bitcoin?…
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