President of Nigeria, Mahammadu Buhari, has reiterated that Nigeria – Benin border will only be reopened upon recommendations from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In that regard, Prez Buhari, is calling on all affected neighbouring countries to exercise restraint over the closure of the Nigeria-Benin border.
President Buhari’s comment came to bear during a meeting he held with the President of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who also doubles as the Chairman of the ECOWAS Committee set up to resolve the border closure impasse.
Nigeria-Benin Border Closure
On August 20, 2019, the Nigerian Government, in a move to curb the smuggling of large quantities of rice and other essential commodities, took steps to close it borders to neighbouring countries including Benin and Niger, whose borders were partially closed.
But to the surprise of many watchers, the Nigerian Government, later announced that it was extending the border closure to January 31, 2020.
The January 31 date had since come to pass and the borders still remain closed. Leaving the businessmen and women from neighboring countries in total dismay, with some calling for reprisal action on Nigerian Traders in their countries.
As if this was not enough, the Nigerian Customs Service has threatened to shut down all supermarkets and shops patronizing and retailing foreign rice as well as other prohibited items.
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Whiles attempt are being made to get the Nigeria authorities to reopen it borders, some analysts of the view that no foreign policy can persuade the Nigerian Government to rescind it’s decision as the economic reasons for taking the action was much stronger.
The Smuggle
About 10 million litres of fuel are been smuggled out of Nigeria on daily basis through the Nigeria-Benin border Smugglers do so to gain from the low prices by selling higher outside. Since 2013 when Nigeria imposed 70% tax on rice imports, the import of rice into Benin has shot up exponentially ahead of Nigeria’s drastic fall of import. In 2016 alone Benin imported nearly 1.4 million metric tonnes of rice from Thailand, while Nigeria’s official port figures shows that under 100,000 metric tonnes of rice entered the country (Thai Rice Exporters Association). Analysts point out that the 11.5 million population in Benin cannot consume that volumes of rice import of rice. Therefore, most likely they find their way into Nigeria. Nigeria’s appetite for rice is gargantuan. Their taste for foreign rice has also grown, while at the same time local production does not fully meet local demand. The conditions are thus perfect for the rice influx to thrive
Effects of Nigeria-Benin Border Closure on sub-region
Nigeria being the superpower in the region in terms of size of market, the border closure is obviously having a massive impact on trade. The closure came in less than a month when Nigeria signed the AfCTA agreement. This is seen as a lip service by the Nigerian government to the AfCTA agreement. Though ECOWAS trade agreements supports the restrictions of agric produce entering the countries, the Nigerian-Benin border closure seem to be a slap in the face of the 15 neighbouring trade participating companies. Traders from all other parts of the sub-region who do not deal in any of products in conflict have all been lost out with billions of dollars being lost.
