After more than one year of closing Nigeria’s land borders with neighbouring countries the federal government ordered the reopening of some of the borders. However, analysts have continued to ask whether much has changed; BENJAMIN UMUTEME reports.
In August 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered that Nigeria’s land borders should be closed to all movement of goods. In making the announcement, the President failed to give a timeline for the border closure.
After more than one year of closing the borders the federal government ordered the reopening of the Seme in the South-west, Ilela and Maigatari in the North-west as well as Mfun in the South-west.
According to Buhari the decision by the government to close the borders would curb, significantly, the rampant smuggling that continues unabated across the country’s porous borders. It was also meant to boost local production of agricultural products.
The President said the partial border closure was also necessitated by the increasing armed banditry, human trafficking, irregular migration, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, and other trans-border crimes.
The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Hameed Ali, had said: “All goods, for now, are banned from being exported or imported through our land borders and that is to ensure that we have total control over what comes in.
“We are strategising on how best the goods can be handled when we eventually get to the point where this operation will relax for the influx of goods.”
Political watchers and commentators have repeatedly hinged the country precarious security challenges to Nigeria’s porous borders which makes it difficult to track trafficking and sale of small and light weapons across the country.
However, part of the consequences of the border closure was that prices for staples such as rice in Nigerian markets shut-up.
Equally, the closure was a big blow to Nigeria’s neighbours especially Benin Republic which is a key hub for the country’s many importers.
AfCFTA’s unseen hand
The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a trade agreement between 44 African Union (AU) member-states without major economic blocs of Nigeria, South Africa.
It was signed in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 21, 2018, but on July 7, in Niamey, Niger Republic and Nigeria signed the AfCFTA, making Nigeria the 53rd country to sign the agreement.
Regarded as the largest in the world in terms of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the agreement initially requires members to remove tariffs from 90 per cent of goods, allowing free access to commodities, goods, and services across the continent.
President Muhammadu Buhari later explained that the country would not agree to anything that would undermine local manufacturers and entrepreneurs.
According to him, “We will not agree to anything that will undermine local manufacturers and entrepreneurs, or that may lead to Nigeria becoming a dumping ground for finished goods.”
And when he ordered the closure of the country’s borders, it did not come as a surprise to watchers of history. This is as experts have argued that the closure of the borders was doing more harm to the economy than good.
As signatory to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) it was obvious that Nigeria would be breaching the agreement it entered into.
The Presidential Inter-Ministerial Committee on border closure chaired by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, recommended the reopening of the borders to remove all obstacles to free movement of goods across the continent as enunciated by AfCFTA.
According to Ahmed, the closure of the borders had caused some Nigerian private sector businesses loss of market share.
“There’s a need for Nigeria as members of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme and signatory to the recently signed African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement to dismantle all barriers to ensure free movement of goods across the continent and work towards opening the land borders before the commencement of the treaty on 1st January, 2021.”
She noted that dwindling capacity utilisation and high inventory of unsold manufactured goods, especially those with market base and significant presence in West Africa, had resulted in unemployment and poor credit rating.
She said: “Nigeria as the most industrialised in the region is a leading member of ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) with registration of about 2,433 indigenous companies and about 6,973 products, estimated at about 65 percent of the total companies registered under the scheme, hence had unwittingly limited her market through the border closure.”
Also, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, said the border closure security agencies an opportunity to assess the problems at the borders, particularly with regard to smuggling.
As you are all aware before the border closures, a lot of petroleum products were being smuggled out from the borders to West African countries and the border closures have created a situation that has tactically stopped that, they have been able to calculate the amount of petroleum products being smuggled out by calculating the amount that is being lifted now compared to what was being lifted before.
“The issue of smuggling of rice to the country has reduced drastically and we are hoping that our agencies will be able to sustain that, so also is the issue of poultry smuggling.
“Also very important is the issue of importation of small arms and weapons into the country that also has stopped. We are hoping and we are sure that this time around, our security agencies will be able to see that that doesn’t reoccur again.
“These are the issues that caused the closure of the borders in the first place and we have been able to put a stop to them.”
Has anything changed?
Before the four borders were reopened, the Presidential Inter-Ministerial Committee on border closure had stated that the activities of smugglers, irregular migrants and other forms of criminality had been seriously curtailed.
The committee said the measure was not meant to create dissonance but to ensure more rational international trade relations and peaceful co-existence that would promote cooperation and integration amongst Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member countries.
“It has also made communities around the land and maritime border routes to be more aware of the overriding benefits of effective border control to economic development and national security, as well as the need to protect the country’s sovereignty,” the committee said.
Experts’ views
Meanwhile, experts and social commentators have been welcomed the government’s action saying that it would open up intra-regional trade in the ECOWAS sub-region.
Speaking with Blueprint Weekend, Professor Uche Uwaleke of the Nasarawa State University, said the government’s action was timely, considering the festive period and the effect it would have on prices of food items.
“The reopening of land borders is a welcome development and timely in view of the festive season. I expect inflationary pressure on food items to moderate in the coming weeks. I also expect smuggling to reduce while government revenue receives a boost.
“However, with the rising cases of COVID-19, every effort should be made to ensure that this does not present a health challenge,” he said.
Echoing the same sentiment, the President, Nigerian Cassava Farmers (NCF), Segun Akinwunmi, in a chat with our correspondent, lauded the government’s decision, stating that “food will be cheaper and prices will come down.”
On the implication for rice farmers, Adewunmi noted that though there would be smuggling of rice, but it would not adversely impact rice farmers.
The president of cassava farmers further noted that it would act as a catalyst for mechanisation by farmers.