Vice President Kashim Shettima
From next year, the BRICS economic bloc will have eleven member nations.
This is one of the outcomes of the three-day event hosted by South Africa, at which the membership application of Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, UAE, was announced as successful.
South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, while making the announcement said the bloc, “is an equal partnership of countries that have differing views but have a shared vision for a better world”.
Nigeria is among 40 nations which seek to join the BRICS, but despite being Africa’s largest economy by GDP, its application has not sailed through even as its vice president, Kashim Shettima was at the summit at which Russian President, Vladimir Putin told delegates via video conference that the West should be blamed for holding down Africa’s economic prosperity by taking a lot from the continent and giving back tokens.
The summit held at a time of global economic uncertainties and political disagreements between the west and Russia, with the ongoing war in Ukraine a sour point.
According to research group, Statista, the combined GDP of the current five BRICS countries is about 26.03 Trillion dollars, compared to the 45.9 dollar trillion overall GDP of the G-7.
AIT
