Nigeria misses out on Brics membership as group votes to admit six new members

DEVELOPING nations group Brics has admitted six new members at its ongoing summit in South Africa with Nigeria surprisingly missing out on membership as the body expands its membership to 11.

Regarded as the next  group of industrial nations, Brics made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are expected to soon be able to rival the G7 in terms of industrial output. Made up of populous developing nations who are enjoying significant economic growth, Brics is essentially a conglomeration of aspiring manufacturing economies.

At its ongoing summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Brics took the drastic step of admitting Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates into the bloc as from next year. They will all become full members as from January 1 2024, making the club of large and populous emerging economies much more formidable.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, said: "This membership expansion is historic. The expansion is also a new starting point for Brics cooperation as it will bring new vigour to the cooperation mechanism and further strengthen the force for world peace and development."

India's prime minister Narendra Modi, added: "India has always supported the expansion of Brics. India has always believed that adding new members will strengthen Brics as an organisation."

According to Bloomberg economists, the original four Bric members made up of China, India, Russia and Brazil, had two things in common - large economies and high potential growth rates. However, this expanded Btics-11 is a less coherent group, with some members going through crises, while others are thriving.

This, it is feared, could signal an expansion of the agenda beyond economics. Brics is a club in demand and it is believed that at least 40 countries have shown interest in joining the group.

At the moment, the five member nations have a combined gross domestic product (GDP) larger than that of the G7 in purchasing power parity terms. In nominal terms, the Brics countries are responsible for 26% of global GDP but despite this, they get only 15% of the voting power at the International Monetary Fund.