Members of the Organized Private Sector (OPS), including manufacturers and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), have decried continued closure of Nigeria’s border for a drill. The government’s move to curb smuggling at the borders has received its fair share of criticism from business organizations in the country including manufacturers and prominent LCCI. They are complaining that goods meant for export to other regional markets are trapped on the corridor. Amongst the array of complainants is the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, which maintains that the continued stance of the Federal Government has crippled the export sector. The weekly loss, according to the organization, was at least US$1million from the export business per operator. What prompted the government to close the border, particularly SEME border, according to government sources, is the smuggling of rice. The porous border is also witnessing smuggling of many other goods, causing heavy revenue loss to the exchequer.
Members of the Organized Private Sector (OPS), including manufacturers and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), have decried continued closure of Nigeria’s border for a drill. The government’s move to curb smuggling at the borders has received its fair share of criticism from business organizations in the country including manufacturers and prominent LCCI. They are complaining that goods meant for export to other regional markets are trapped on the corridor. Amongst the array of complainants is the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, which maintains that the continued stance of the Federal Government has crippled the export sector. The weekly loss, according to the organization, was at least US$1million from the export business per operator. What prompted the government to close the border, particularly SEME border, according to government sources, is the smuggling of rice. The porous border is also witnessing smuggling of many other goods, causing heavy revenue loss to the exchequer.
The LCCI urges the government to be more tactical in dealing with problems of this nature. It feels that the border closure is a simplistic solution to a complicated, broader and multidimensional problem. Weak state institutions and corruption, the association feels has manifested in the escalation of of smuggling. The common man is now being made to pay the price for lapses of ineffectual institutions of the state.
The LCCI urges the government to be more tactical in dealing with problems of this nature. It feels that the border closure is a simplistic solution to a complicated, broader and multidimensional problem. Weak state institutions and corruption, the association feels has manifested in the escalation of of smuggling. The common man is now being made to pay the price for lapses of ineffectual institutions of the state.
