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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin has said that Moscow was negotiating with Nigeria and a host of other countries on the use of Mir cards.
“The unjustified blocking of all Russian clients by the largest international card payment systems has made it important to expand the geography of Mir cards. We are actively working in this direction,” he said last week, adding that discussions about this matter are being held with Nigeria, Egypt, China, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cuba, Myanmar, and Thailand.
Russian Mir payment cards currently can be used in 11 countries: Abkhazia, Armenia, Belarus, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, South Korea and South Ossetia.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy with a GDP size of $432 billion at the end of 2021, according to World Bank data.
Nigeria’s $432 billion economy makes it the 28th largest in the world, ahead of Emerging Markets like Israel ($407bn), Norway ($362bn), UAE ($358bn), Vietnam ($342bn), Pakistan ($299bn), Egypt ($364bn) and Chile ($252bn).
Trade volumes between Nigeria and Russia have doubled in three years to $600million, the Nigerian Ambassador to Russia, said last year.
Nigeria has been importing increasing amounts of Russian equipment mainly in the oil and gas industry but now fanning out into the steel and agricultural sectors.