By Bimbola Oyesola, Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye (Abuja), Adewale Sanyolu, Steve Agbota and Merit Ibe
Sixteen months after the Federal Government ordered the closure of Nigeria’s land borders with neighbouring countries, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday approved the recommendation of a committee for the reopening of four land borders with immediate effect, while others will be reopened in due course.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, made the disclosure after the 28th virtual meeting of FEC, with President Muhammadu Buhari joining from his country home of Daura, Katsina state.
Ahmed said the restriction on the importation of some commodities including rice and other products, would however continue.
According to her, the borders opening with immediate effect include include Seme and Mfun borders in the Southwest, Ilela and Maigatari borders in the Northwest.
This was even as the government said Nigerians should expect to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of January 2021.
Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire said technical working group in the ministry was working on which vaccine will best suit Nigeria considering that the country has no -80 degrees freezers.
Meanwhile, in its reaction to FEC’s approval of the reopening of the nation’s borders, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Industry, (LCCI) described the news as a welcome development for the economy.
LCCI Director General, Dr Muda, Yusuf said it remained a welcome development, as it would be beneficial to the economy and in consonance with the recently ratified AfCFTA which kicks off on January 1, 2021.
According to him, many small businesses depend on cross border trade for a living while most manufacturers also leverage the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) to boost their business and also source their raw materials from countries in the sub region.
The LCCI boss however underscored the need to strengthen border policing and management mechanisms to avoid a relapse into the conditions that led to the closure in the first place.
He said the biggest challenge with the border management is an institutional issue that re-enforces the need for accountability from the institutions that have the responsibility for border policing and management.
For his part, Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Export Promotion Group (MANEG), Chief Ede Dafinone, said government’s border reopening will enable free flow of goods from Nigerian manufacturers and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to other parts of the subregion and beyond.
He argued that the decision will help the economy now undergoing its second recession in five years to recover from what has been a terrible year..
“That means its reopening for import and export.
But my question is why the Federal Government stayed till December to reopen the borders..
Well the government had an objective to achieve for the borders to be shut for that period of time.
“It would have been nice for them to also establish what have been achieved by the closure so as to give manufacturers and other exporters some confidence in the government’s decision”.
I am still awaiting explanations and impact assessment for us to know how much was achieved in the 16 months of the closure.
We need to know how successful the closure was: now you are reopening them, we believe something was achieved positively. This assessment is important so that those exporters can have confidence to review their operations .
So, some sort of assessment needs to be done on how successful the closure was, what exactly was achieved and the expectations going forward.
Also commenting on the border reopening, the President of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero said the Federal Government has taken the right decision by reopening the land borders, which are legal to entry points like seaports and airports.
According Amiwero, goods coming from the borders are not usually smuggled goods. While admitting that there may some that are smuggled, he argued that majority of them are cleared normally. “I believe that the decision government has taken is a right one but it took it so late because alot of people have lost their goods.
Nigerian importers have suffered so much because the essence of closing the border is yet to be seen. But notwithstanding, it is better late than never.
According to him, the kind of trades going through the border can be revived with the reopening because Nigeria is a party to African Continental Free Trade Agreement, ECOWAS Treaty on Common External Tariff and other issues.
You don’t close borders, what you do is to go into mutual adminstrative assistant, which America and every other countries have done. An importer, Jude Anozie, slammed the government for delaying the border reopening, stressing that goods worth over N300 billion have perished in the last one year.
He said the Federal Government decided to reopening the border because of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which will take off by January next year, as failure to reopen ahead of the implementation of the trade agreement will put Nigeria at great disadvantage.
“Aside that, ECOWAS must have santioned Nigeria for failing to reopen the border if the free trade agreement implementation takes off. But we appreciate the efforts of every stakeholders who mount pressure on Government to reopen the borders. I lost my clearing agents at Seme border due to the closure of the border. he added.
Also, speaking Chairman of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANCLA), Seme border chapter, Bisiriyu Fanu, said, “for the fact that it is very late, we still thank God for making the Federal Government reopen the land borders because if it didn’t there is nothing we can do. We appreciate Federal Government.”
On the negative effects on people around the border in the last one year, he said whatever that has happened before now doesn’t matter anymore because the border has been reopened, and businesses activities will return to normal around the borborders.