Featured, Opinion
The closure of the land borders has taken a toll on the economies of Nigeria and its neighbours and whatever sustainable measures that are being taken to reopen the borders should be hastened to save the economies of these countries and the wellbeing of their citizens.
By Goddy Ikeh
Recently, the Nigerian government expressed its displeasure over the statistics reeled out often by international finance institutions on Nigeria’s socio-economic development indices, which include the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF.
Inaugurating the Economic Advisory Council, EAC, in Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari, urged the members to among others, correct the wrong impressions that the data generated by foreign financial institutions have on Nigeria by coming up with accurate data on development issues in the country.
Buhari believes that this can be achieved by the members working closely with the relevant cabinet members and heads of monetary and fiscal agencies on economic growth and a range of internal and global economic issues. Unfortunately, these figures are usually generated by the officials of the government and the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, and not by the foreign financial institutions.
However, the government has not frowned at the intervention by the IMF on the closure of its land borders with some neighbouring West African countries over issues bordering on illegal trade.
Abebe Selassie, the Director of the African Department at the IMF, told journalists at a media briefing on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington that although free trade was critical to economic growth of the continent, it should be legal and in line with agreements.
Responding to a question on the closure and if it negates the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, AfCFTA, Selassie said: “On the border closure in Nigeria, which has been impacting Benin and Niger, our understanding is that the action reflects concerns about smuggling that has been taking place. It is about illegal trade, which is not what you want to facilitate.’’
Selassie said that the IMF was hoping for a speedy resolution of the issues as the action was already taking a toll on the economies of Nigerian neighbours.
“We are very hopeful that discussions will resolve the challenges that this illegal trade is posing.
“If the border closure is to be sustained for a long time, it will definitely have an impact on Benin and Niger which, of course, rely quite extensively on the big brother next door,’’ he said.
The report by the News Agency of Nigeria said that the IMF director also said that the AfCFTA was one of the most exciting policy developments in the region in recent months.
Selassie said that the analyses by the Fund showed that the initiative had a “tremendous potential to facilitate higher economic growth’’.
He noted that the “hard task’’ before African nations is making sure the AfCFTA is fully implemented “to facilitate the trade that we need to see between countries in the region’’.
Since the closure of the borders in August, there has been divergent views on the reasons for the closure of the borders.
For the Finance and National Planning Minister, Zainab Ahmed, the decision to close the borders was to prevent weapons and drugs from entering the country and not just to stop food smuggling and economic gains as being speculated.
But Hameed Ali, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, sees it differently. Ali was quoted as saying at a recent meeting with the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning that due to the border closure initiative, there was a day in September that N9.2 billion was collected by the Customs. According to him, the country rakes in between N4.7 billion and N5.8 billion daily revenue from imports.
He also noted that 90 percent of cars smuggled into the country are displayed for sale across the country and the Customs unit has embarked on raids on various car marts to ensure a complete crackdown on smuggling and save the nation of revenue losses.
And President Muhammadu Buhari also declared that the closure was already yielding positive results for the nation’s economy. Buhari explained that the closure was caused by non-adherence to the business ideals that are inimical to the development of the Nigerian economy.
”After many years of diplomacy and aggressive regulatory oversight which yielded few results, we decided to close our land borders for a limited time to assess the impact of this measure,’’ Buhari said.
Already, the impact of the closure has caused food inflation in Nigeria and it has been blamed for the rise in the inflation rate for September to 11. 24%, up from 11.02% in August this year.
Irked by the continued closure of the borders, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders has urged the Federal Government to make the country’s ports user-friendly to shippers and other maritime operators.
The president of NAGAFF, Uche Increase, said in an interview with NAN that “whatever reason that warranted the land border closure is best known to government and we believe it’s for the best interest of the country”.
“But on a larger scale, the government needs to evaluate the issue of borders being so porous that illicit trade are going on there or the insecurity of bringing arms and ammunition into the country.
“The next stage or level of enquiry should be to look into port operation properly; the reason why people tend to transit their cargoes through the neighbouring countries, let government make enquiry as our ports are not user-friendly.
“The service providers are unfriendly, the concessionaires of port terminals saddle shippers with arbitrary, unapproved charges, highhandedness on demurrage and storage fees and others.”
The freight forwarder urged the Federal Government to set up a committee to look at the issues holistically in order to attract more patronage to the nation’s ports.
He also noted that the border closure may have negative effect on Nigeria’s relationship with the neighbouring countries as the country had signed the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
“Right now, freight forwarders are somehow confused because they are not operating and perishable goods are getting spoilt due to the border closure,” he said.
The NAGAFF boss urged the Federal Government to have a rethink as closing the border without making the nation’s ports user-friendly might lead to more smuggling and other illegal activities.
Meanwhile, it is gathered that following a recent meeting by Nigerian and Ghanaian officials, an alternative route is being proposed for Ghanaian goods meant for the Nigerian market.
In addition, a Nigerian official disclosed that the customs and securities agencies from Nigeria, Benin and Niger are holding talks on sanitizing the borders and getting the affected neighbouring countries to conform with the commitments that were mutually agreed with the aim of reopening of the borders soon.
– Oct 21, 2019 @ 12:25 GMT |
Tags: Border Closure: Nigeria finds new ally in IMF
