The Federal Government of Nigeria has considered the re-opening of the Seme land border for the importation of vehicles.
According to Director of Road Transport in the Ministry of Transportation, Ibrahim Musa, who made the announcement on Wednesday, during his speech at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting organised between officials of Nigeria and Benin, the federal government has decided to reopen the border following complaints by freight forwarders operating in the area.
In his words: “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.”
The Customs Area Controller of Seme Border Command, Dera Nnadi, also noted that the service has noticed a reduction in its revenue since the importation of vehicles was banned from the land borders.
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.”
Recall that Seme border was closed in August 2019 by the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari.
