Experts, LCCI, condemn continued closure
Akpan Hogan Ekpo, Executive Chairman of the Foundation for Economic Research and Training in Lagos said: “The Nigerian approach to border closure is not like the Chinese approach that we are quick to reference as a model.
“The Chinese approach was a comprehensive one. In our case, we just said oh! They are bringing in rice, let us close the borders.
“You close your border so that the factories in your economy can produce or can start new products and it will only last for a while. We call it the infant industry argument. But there is the question of when to stop because you have to be competitive,” he said.
He further argued that Nigeria must have a “comprehensive approach and selective engagement with its neighbours, not fighting with them.”
Similarly, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the federal government should not allow the closure of the Nigeria-Benin border to jeopardise the business of entrepreneurs on that corridor.
Daily Trust correspondents who visited some localities observed that business activities were gradually going down in border towns. At the Nigeria-Niger border town of Maigatari in Jigawa State, livestock trading, which is the major commercial activity, has been greatly affected as supply comes from Niger Republic.
The chairman of livestock dealers in the area, Kabiru Aminu Maigatari, told
Daily Trust that commercial activities in the livestock market also known as “kara” has dropped by more than half. In Ogun State, the chairman of the Community Development Association (CDA), IwoyeKute, a border community in the state, Ahmed Ismaila, told Daily Trust that residents were still battling for survival over the fuel ban as well as the border closure.
He said apart from the struggle to get fuel, transporters have increased fare thereby compounding the woes of the border residents.
Ismaila said a litre of petrol is sold for N350, while transport fare from Abeokuta to Iwoye-Ketu has increased to N1,500 from N1,000.
Traders, motorcyclists and Nigerians resident at Ajasor town near the IkomCameroon border, as well as those in Bakassi, have described the federal government’s continued closure of the Nigerian borders as a sheer waste of time.
They claimed that the action will further encourage cross border smugglers to devise more ways to carry out their illegal businesses.
Mrs Grace Abeng who brings tomatoes and vegetables from Cameroon, said the extension of the time from January 2020 is insensitive on the side of government.
“I can tell you that despite the closure, illegal trading is still going on across the border. Our boys still bring in tomatoes and other vegetables from Cameroon. They know how to settle the Ambazonia boys as well as our own officials,” she said.