The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Seme chapter has predicted than more than 500, 000 persons may lose their jobs and means of livelihood if the planned ban on importation of vehicles into Nigeria through the land borders is enforced on January 1, 2017 by the Federal Government ,
The association raised the alarm on Tuesday during a press conference at Seme border.
The Seme chapter Chairman of the Association; Alhaji Bisiriyu Fanu told journalists that the decision of the Federal Government to ban importation of vehicles through the land border would adversely affect the well-being of about 500,000 Nigerians.
According to him, the ban which will take effect from January 1, 2017 will affect businesses of over a million of other nationals that are involved in legitimate businesses and trade facilitation along the Lagos- Abidjan corridor.
He however urged the Federal Government to reconsider its stance, because of what he called, the possible negative effects it may have on the country.
He said, "vehicle importation through the land borders has provided employment to over 500,000 Nigerian graduates who would have ordinarily being roaming the streets due to massive unemployment.
"Nigerians have so easily forgotten that such policies in the past had led to serious revenue leakages and massive smuggling along the border areas and there was concomitant wastage of both human and material resources in that regard," he stated.
While making reference to the ban on rice which he claimed did not achieve the desired result, he added that the ban did not reduce the quantity of the staple food in the market as the markets still have assorted imported and smuggled rice.
Fanu alleged that most of these products come through unapproved routes and through concealing them in fuel tanks, cement trucks and vehicle engines to evade the law and by so doing, contaminate the products before getting to their destinations.
He therefore called on the government to consider the plights of the citizens that would be rendered jobless, even as he maintained that the action would inflict sufferings on many families.
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