Can India give Africa a voice that shapes decisions within BRICS? - IOL

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in New Delhi for the 18th BRICS Summit, where South Africa will seek to expand intra-BRICS trade and investment.

IN 2023, as G20 chairman, Prime Minister Modi pushed to make the African Union a permanent member of the world's most influential body. It was a historic gesture, one that cast India as a champion of the Global South and earned Delhi considerable goodwill across the continent.

Now, on the sidelines of BRICS 2026, African leaders and pundits are asking a sharper question: will India use its position to give Africa not just a seat at the table, but a voice that shapes the decisions made there? The distinction matters because inclusion is not influence, and a permanent seat for the African Union will give it substantive decision-making power.

India has assembled an unprecedented African delegation in Delhi. Three African states are full BRICS members, South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia, represented respectively by President Cyril Ramaphosa, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Two African countries hold partner status: Nigeria, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, and Uganda, represented by Vice President Jessica Alupo.

South Africa became the first African country to join BRICS as a full member, giving the bloc its "S" and for over a decade, it was the continent's only voice at the table as Africa’s largest economy.

Crucially, the African Union itself is present as a regional bloc. Burundi’s President Évariste Ndayishimiye, as current chair of the African Union, is attending on behalf of the continental body. This is institutional Africa, not just individual states, but the collective voice of a continent.

India also invited the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), and the Eurasian Economic Union, positioning BRICS as a convenor of the Global South rather than a closed club.

BRICS of course has expanded. With Egypt and Ethiopia now members, and other African states knocking at the door for inclusion.

The New Development Bank (NDB), the group's flagship institution, is headquartered in Shanghai. Its founding members are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and it has since admitted Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, and Uzbekistan. Yet its voting structure remains weighted toward its largest shareholders. And consensus-based decision-making sounds egalitarian until you realise that the largest economies set the agenda, and the smallest simply consent.

Consider the numbers. Africa accounts for roughly 18 percent of the world's population but less than 3 percent of global GDP. Intra-BRICS trade has grown substantially, yet Africa's share of that trade remains marginal compared to China, India, and Russia. The continent is rich in the resources that power the global economy, cobalt, lithium, oil, and arable land, but it remains a price-taker, not a price-maker.

Membership in a club does not, on its own, change concrete reality. Africa’s presence in BRICS is growing. Its power within it is not.

India occupies a unique position. It is a founding BRICS member, a G20 heavyweight, and, crucially, a country with deep historical ties to Africa, from the Non-Aligned Movement to its modern development partnerships. Delhi can credibly claim to be a bridge.

But bridges can be walked over in both directions. If India wants to be seen as Africa's advocate, it must convert rhetoric into reform. That means backing African candidates for leadership positions within BRICS institutions. It means pushing for a rotating chairmanship that gives smaller members genuine agenda-setting power. It means ensuring that the NDB's lending reflects African priorities, infrastructure, energy access, climate adaptation, not just the strategic interests of the largest shareholders.

There is a counterargument: some analysts argue that India's primary loyalty is to its own strategic autonomy, not to any bloc.

Yet G20 2023 complicates that scepticism. When India held the chair, it did not merely invite the African Union to observe. It pushed, against considerable resistance from established powers, to make the AU a permanent member of the G20. That was not a gesture that cost India nothing. It was a deliberate transfer of institutional power to a continent that had long been excluded from it. If Delhi was willing to do that in the G20, why not in BRICS?

The BRICS 2026 summit is India's moment. As host, Delhi controls the agenda, the tone, and the outcomes. If Modi repeats his G20 performance, elevating Africa from observer to architect, he will cement India's legacy as a true voice of the Global South. African leaders are watching closely and have seen what India can do.

But this is not about pressure. It is about recognizing what BRICS has already delivered for Africa, and what more is possible. The New Development Bank, BRICS’s most significant institutional achievement, has approved over $42.9 billion across 139 projects, including $205 million for the Magalies Bulk Water Supply Scheme serving two million South Africans and $200 million for a 488-bed teaching hospital in Limpopo. It opened its first regional office in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2017, signaling that Africa is not an afterthought but a priority.

Trade in local currencies could also save the continent $5 billion annually in transaction costs . At the Rio Summit, African members, South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia, stood together to shape the declaration’s language on UN Security Council reform, demanding permanent African representation. And the principle of “African solutions to African problems” is now embedded in BRICS declarations, recognising the African Union’s role in conflict resolution.

Prime Minister Modi understood this in 2023 when he pushed for Africa’s permanent seat at the G20. Now, at BRICS 2026, he has the chance to build on that legacy.