Business crumble under Border Closure With Niger/Nigeria

Since over 2,000 Nigeria-bound containers have been trapped, costing over N13 billion per week, businessmen using the platform of the Arewa Economic Forum (AEF) have sent a Save-Our-Soul message to the federal government, urging it to reopen some northern borders unrelated to the Niger Republic.

During a press conference in Abuja today, AEF Chairman Ibrahim Shehu Dandakata said that many northern businesses have closed down and the ones that have survived are in a coma, which has worsened poverty and unemployment in the region and throughout Nigeria.

According to Dandakata, many of the 25 million people living in the Niger Republic rely heavily on cross-border trade to make ends meet.

He pleaded with the federal government, “Please consider our plights and the plights of all Nigerians and at least open the borders that are not directly linked to the Niger Republic.”

The Maje-Illo border in Kebbi State is the connection between Benin and the rest of the world. The Niger Republic is in no way relevant to this. If the government allows Customs duties to be paid there, we can arrange to have our goods transferred and cleared there once it opens. It’s a proposal we hope the government will take into account.

Considering the wider socioeconomic implications in the entire West and Central Africa sub-region, Dandakata argued that war should be off the table when dealing with the military juntas in Niger Republic.

We support the return of democracy to the Niger Republic. We must have peace in order to reopen that trade route.

Trade between the two countries is valued at around N171 billion. The value of unrecorded informal trade is estimated to be around N515 billion. Niger provides the vast majority of the sheep, goats, and cows that are eaten in Nigeria. The border was closed by Nigeria, not Niger. The bulk of their supplies originate in Nigeria. Freight is loaded in Kano and shipped to the Central African Republic, Mali, Niger, and other countries.

West and central Africa will be impacted by the border closure. One of the world’s poorest countries is Niger.

Refugees are not acceptable. Due to the insurgency in the north, one million Nigerians have fled to neighbouring Niger.

If Niger were to explode, there would be too many refugees for Nigeria to handle.

We recommend that the ECOWAS concentrate their efforts on the military junta and their associates rather than the poor and defenceless. The junta should be cut off from society and dealt with.

We beg you not to shut down trade between Kebbi State and Benin Republic, as doing so would unfairly punish Nigerians and Nigerians.

We also urge the junta to separate economic concerns from their own. The results of the recent events in Niger are plain to see.

We learned that three million small arms are already present in Nigeria. Arms will surely flood in if Niger catches fire. Niger is a key player in reversing the trend. What a mess we’d be in if they weren’t here to check these’, Dandakata said.

Hamza Saleh, a licenced customs agent with the Pacific Northwest, added his sadness that some of the trapped containers contain food that is quickly spoiling.

The onions, peppers, tomatoes, etc., that we’ve been discussing are rotting.

Someone claimed to have lost over N50,000,000 and is still counting.

Our plea is for the FG to create new opportunities. Kebbi’s Maje-Illo border, for instance,” he explained.