.Seme Border
One year after the Federal Government shut all land borders into the country, industry players have described it as causing a monumental loss to the nation’s economy.
The stakeholders told Shipping Position Daily that losses associated with the border closure were significant to be ignored.
Recall that the government closed the land borders on the 20th of August 2019 with a view to curtailing smuggling of goods into the country from neighboring countries and sundry trans-border crimes.
Reacting to the impact of the border closure one year after, the Director General of Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Mr. Muda Yusuf informed that the border protectionist policy of the federal government has both positive and negative impacts on the economy.
Yusuf said one of the positive impacts of the closure is the Nigeria agricultural sector particularly the rice and poultry farmers claim to be benefitting, even as manufacturers and exporters are however suffering under the policy.
According to him, the losses are too numerous to quantify, he however said that they run into Billions of Naira.
He disclosed that, at a recent programme organized by the chamber, a poll was conducted with participants who cut across all sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing and logistics, he said majority of the respondents posited that they have been negatively affected by the land border closure, while only few acknowledged that the closure has positively impacted on their businesses, he noted that the negative implication of the policy on businesses is more.
The LCCI DG opined that there is an admixture of the impact of the borders closure, he explained that the land border closure is not a sustainable and strategic approach to address perennial issues of smuggling.
He urged the federal government to find a lasting solution to checkmate smuggling without hurting businesses across various sector of the economy.
Speaking also to our correspondent, the vice president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Mr. John Aluya said the closure of land borders which is about one-year-old, has done a lot of damages to the economic growth of Nigeria.
He specifically lamented that manufacturers have been faced with a lot of challenges as many of them can no longer sell their products to neigbouring countries, for the obvious reason of border closure.
“The manufacturers have been faced with a lot of challenges as they can no longer sell our products to neighboring countries and neighboring countries cannot come to Nigeria to do business, so invariably it has affected trade the economy is badly affected.
“When you look at it vis-a-vis what AfCTA is about, you will say yes there is no need; you cannot shut border because we are to trade within ourselves for us to grow, so strictly speaking border closure has done a lot of damages to the economic growth of Nigeria, but we hope government re-opens it soon”.
Reacting as well to the border closure issue as its affects its members, the National President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Mr. Tony Iju Nwabunike lamented that the closure of the land border has not benefitted the economy in any way.
He said in the last one year, several trucks loaded with cargoes are still trapped at the various land borders, some of which have already paid their duty to the government.
According to him, "for one year now, clearing agents have nothing doing, to worsen the case, all the trucks trapped at the border posts are still there, even though all the duties have been paid, you can imagine the high level of economic wastage in that area"
"Check the vehicles that have stayed for one year, check the goods they have carried for one year, check the quantum of economic losses those who have used the border for import or export, we cannot quantify it”, he said.
The ANLCA boss suggested that rather than the continuous closure of the land borders, the federal government through the Nigeria Customs Service should know what to do about the border closure, immediately after Covid-19.
He pleaded that the government should allow cargoes that are trapped to come in, as most of them have already paid duty.
"This is why we are asking the federal government through the Nigeria Customs Service to know what to do about the border closure, immediately after this Covid-19, let them allow these cargoes to come in, because most of them have already paid duty, and the goods which government has collected duty on are not being allowed to go out, and I am sure that most of these goods are either expired or contaminated"
"We are talking about the total loss to Nigerian economy; either import or export, we cannot quantify it, I don’t think it has added value to our economy, except they want to talk about in terms of arms and ammunition or national security, but in terms of economy, I don’t think the economy has done so well", he said.
Nwabunike said with the continuous closure of the land borders, the country has ceded all the economic powers he was supposed to have into the hands of other countries.
"Nigeria should understand what we want, I agree that security must be of topmost importance, but now that we are even talking about AfCFTA, how do we continue to close the borders under principles of AfCFTA when everywhere is expected to be borderless, it is going to be a decision that has to be reviewed", he stated.
On his part, the Seme border chapter chairman of ANLCA, Bisiriyu Fanu questioned if the federal government or the Nigeria Customs Service can come up with a single gain of the closure, he said the purpose of the closure has not been addressed with the increase in the armed banditry in the north.
Fanu who was frustrated about the continuous closure lamented that importers have lost several billions of naira to federal government. He claimed that some of the goods have already paid their duty before the closure of the borders.
He lamented that: “There is no gain, all that is about the closure of the border is loss, a lot of people have been thrown into the labour market since the closure of the land border”.
“The government has not achieved anything since the closure, with the closure of the border, don’t we still have arm banditry in the north? The border has been closed for one year, so how did the weapons get there” he questioned.
When contacted to give details of the gains of the closure of the land borders, the spokesperson of the of the Task Force that was created by Federal Government for border closure and the National Public Relation Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, Mr Joseph Attah said necessary departments were already working on comprehensive details of the one-year achievement of the Task Force and that a statement will be made available to the press. But as at the time of filing this report, the details were yet to be made available.
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