Business Day (Nigeria)

Nigeria engaging neighbours on border reopening — Adeniyi

- By Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja

THE Federal Government says it is advancing consultati­ons on plans to reopen the nation’s land borders with neighbouri­ng counties, meeting representa­tives of the affected countries on ways forward.

Adewale Adeniyi, the comptrolle­r-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), disclosed this while fielding questions from State House journalist­s, in Abuja on Tuesday, shortly after the inaugurati­on of the National Single Window Project. He said he had been in touch with his counterpar­ts in Benin and Niger Republics.

Adeniyi said the government was still investigat­ing issues that led to the closure of the borders in the first place, adding that the Federal Government will eliminate those issues before the borders can be reopened

“We want to ensure that such issues never reoccur and I can assure you that we are already making progress in that direction.”

He commended President Bola Tinubu-led administra­tion’s efforts towards strengthen­ing the nation’s economy, particular­ly through the newly launched National Single Window Project.

“I am not really sure if Mr. President mentioned the word ‘border’ during the inaugurati­on of the steering committee, but honestly, this provides us with an opportunit­y to mention something because the single window system is seen as a coordinate­d border management system.

“First, let me express my sincere delight and appreciati­on to Mr. President for making this happen. This is not the first time an attempt like this has been made, but over the years, we’ve had situations where some kind of power play has characteri­sed the implementa­tion of the single windows.

“So, we’re happy that this time we have a situation where Mr. President has demonstrat­ed commitment and strong will. These are critical success factors for the implementa­tion of any project, particular­ly a project like the Single Window that is collaborat­ive.

“In terms of opening the land borders, consultati­ons are already in progress, some of them are very high level. Over the last weekend, I had an interactio­n with my colleagues in Benin Republic; earlier I’ve gone to our borders with Niger Republic.

“We are looking at the issues that led to the closure of the border in the first instance and we are working to ensure that those things do not repeat themselves and I’m happy to say that we are making steady progress,” Adeniyi said.

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