Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar declared that his country will put its own interests first and would not bow to outside pressure from the West to work with Russia.
Tuggar made this statement in an interview with Sputnik during his three-day working visit to Russia that took place on March 5–7.
One thing needs to be understood by you. Nigeria is not the kind of nation that gives in to coercion. Since the beginning, we have had a singular focus. As soon as we gained our independence in 1960, we joined the non-aligned movement.
“We are not dictated to by anyone; we do what we feel is right for us as a nation,” stated Tuggar.
According to the minister, Nigeria is open to using payment systems other than SWIFT, such as the Financial Messaging System of the Bank of Russia, which has a Russian equivalent.
He promised that if they serve Nigeria’s national interests, it may think about employing them.”What an intriguing system this is. You’re welcome with it. You know, like they say, the more the merrier.
“That is not to say that SWIFT is a bad system; rather, Nigeria would take other options into consideration if they existed. We are going to investigate it.
When questioned about SPFS’s establishment and Nigeria’s potential membership, the minister responded, “And if it’s in our interest to engage in it, we will, for sure.”
With millions of messages exchanged every day, SWIFT is the primary international payment system in use today.
Following the initial round of Russian sanctions in 2014, a number of nations started working on improving their financial infrastructure.
China introduced the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, while the Bank of Russia developed the SPFS system, which guarantees continuous financial message transmission both inside and outside the nation.