Even as the border closure continues to bite harder on Nigerians and the Nigerian economy, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) has joined the league of organizations urging the federal government on the border closure.
This is as the National President of ANLCA, Chief Iju Tony Nwabunike said that Nigerian customs brokers, though affected by the border closure, all supported it as a patriotic way of getting Nigeria out of the quagmire of illegal and smuggling of all sorts of items into the country.
Nwabunike whomade this position known while delivering a paper at the just concluded two day workshop on African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) in Lagos added that the policy in the last two months had brought tremendous positive security impact in the country.
According to him, “Initially, I was skeptical when the border closure exercise started, so, I wrote to the Comptroller General of Customs over the closure of the land borders. My concern then was why the action soon after signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. But after a critical review of the situation, we can all agree that Nigeria is heading somewhere with the land borders closure.
“I want to also plead with the federal government of Nigeria to facilitate the necessary trade and economic policies with her neighbouring countries so as to fully utilize the benefits of the AfCFTA and ECOWAS protocol on free movement of goods and persons.”
On his part, the Acting Managing Director of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Engr. Terhemba Nongo warned that if Nigeria must benefit from the AfCFTA, it must then check the menace of smuggling adding that a recent World Bank report stated that about N1.45 trillion worth of goods were smuggled into Nigeria annually through the Benin border alone.
This, Nongo said prompted the Africa’s foremost industrialist, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, to lament that “There is no country that can survive with Benin Republic as a neighbour” stating that he (Dangote) went further to call for drastic action so as to save the Nigerian economy.
He submitted that the Buhari led government had taken the bold decision of closing the land borders, saying that although there had been protests from majorly ECOWAS member-states, Nigeria insisted that the closure would remain in force till January 31st, 2020.
“The ban is to help boost local manufacturing, job-creation and economic growth by checking the smuggling of goods into the country. It is in this wise that NEPZA supports, 100 per cent, the federal government’s stance on land border closures. Nigeria cannot be improving the business environment, reforming her economy, increasing her global competitiveness as well as attracting investors and be simultaneously frustrating their growth or even take-off.
“We further align with the President in declaring that: “The AfCFTA we aspire to have should, therefore, not only create wealth for investors but also jobs and prosperity for our vibrant and hardworking citizens. The benefits of economic growth must be prosperity for the masses”, he stated.
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