New Delhi: Indian IT companies are playing a major role in the development of the sector in Nigeria and creating several employment opportunities in the area of information technology in the African nation, a top Indian diplomat has said.

Addressing the visiting 13-member trade delegation here, the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria Mahesh Sachdev said, for example, NIIT through its 35 franchises across Nigeria, currently trains about 19,000 Nigerian IT experts annually.

"Most of them were able to find ready employment in Nigeria's growing economy with a shortage of IT-enabled personnel," he said.

"Similar other Indian IT training companies such as AptechBSE -1.37 pct, Edusoft and EducompBSE 2.03 pct are also active in Nigerian human capacity building space," Sachdev added.

The envoy said the entry of Indian telecom company AirtelBSE 1.10 pct to Nigeria two years ago has also provided an impetus to the Nigerian IT industry.

"The Indian multinational currently employs around 1,500-employees in its Nigerian BPO centres and has ambitious plans, while other Indian companies such as SpancoBSE -9.82 pct and Tech-Mahindra are also in the fray.

"These efforts are aimed at leveraging Nigeria's evident potential of becoming a very significant IT player," Sachdev said.

The two countries have a bilateral trade of over 17.3 billion dollar.

The delegation, made up of members of Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) of India arrived in Nigeria on weekend.

Among other engagement, they held a buyer-seller meet in the African nation's commercial nerve centre, Lagos and the capital city, Abuja.

The delegation visit ended yesterday with a meeting with the country's Minister of Communications Technology Omobola Johnson.

"It is hoped that this delegation's visit will further enhance our bilateral trade and create a win-win situation for both Nigerian and Indian partners," the High Commissioner said in a statement.