The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the re-opening of the Seme land border for the importation of vehicles.
The Director of Road Transport in the
Ministry of Transportation, Ibrahim Musa, made the disclosure on Wednesday.
Musa, who spoke at the Economic Community of
West African States, ECOWAS, meeting organised between officials of Nigeria and
Benin Republic, revealed that the development followed complaints by freight
forwarders operating at the Seme border.
He said: “I was here with the former Minister
of State for Transportation when the freight forwarders pleaded that the border
should be reactivated for the free movement of goods and services.
“The former minister made us prepare a memo
to that effect. It was considered and sent to the government.”
Similarly, the Customs Area Controller of
Seme Border Command, Dera Nnadi, who also spoke at the event, lamented that the
service has noticed a reduction in its revenue since the importation of
vehicles through the land borders was suspended by the immediate past
administration.
Nnadi said: “The former Minister of
Transportation, responding to some of our requests and from the stakeholders,
promised to take them to the Federal Executive Council, FEC, one of them is how
to fully open this border.
“The Ministry has informed us that the memo
has been written to FEC and it was adopted and that it would be given to the
new government, he assured us that all the requests were adopted.”
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