NESG, Others Demand Opening Of Land Borders |The Source

By Tosin Olatokunbo

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG has joined groups demanding the opening of the countries land borders.

The Buhari administration had last August shut all land borders across the country for economic and security reasons, leading to stoppage food and commodities importation.

Earlier in June, ministers from the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS sub-region have recommended the gradual re-opening of the borders of member states in the first half of July, to ease the movement of goods and persons among member countries.

But the administration is yet to accede to demands from business communities, some heads of states from neighbouring countries, such as President Addo of Ghana who visited President Muhammadu Buhari early this year in Aso Rock Villa, to re-open the land borders.

The NESG has therefore urged the federal government to speed up plans of reopening closed land borders, as pressure piles on the president to ease the land lock.

The group in a statement titled “Matters of Urgency” said the embargo should be removed to ease the negative impacts on trade and employment.

NESG said “It must be noted that our work in ECOWAS should not be limited to security and diplomacy, but must also effectively harness trade opportunities within the sub-region.

“We also call on the government to ratify the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), so that we can move to full membership status and take our rightful place in subsequent negotiation rounds.”

President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the closure of Nigeria’s land borders last August 2019 to curb smuggling, and had since directed that imports be channeled through the country’s seaports.