Nigeria’s trade volume with ECOWAS declines to 7% with border closure –MAN

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has disclosed that the on-going partial border closure has resulted in a decline in the volume of trade within Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)  from 12 per cent to 7 per cent.

The Acting Director General of MAN, Ambrose Oruche, who made this known in a chat in Lagos attributed the development to the partial border closure orchestrated by the Federal Government which brought about disruption in land border trading between Nigeria and other ECOWAS countries.

Oruche explained that the closure has severely affected the shipment of Nigerian manufactured goods to the ECOWAS countries both by land and seaports as goods originating from the country now face rejections in parts of the community as acrimony and retaliation set in among trading partners over Federal Government’s refusal to re-open the borders.  He said it was unacceptable for the Federal Government to shut down the borders in the name of smuggling of agriculture produce and ammunition at the detriment of trade promotion and facilitation along the ECOWAS trade corridor.

Oruche noted that there is no country in the world where smuggling of products does not take place but said it was the responsibility of government to control illicit smuggling like other countries are doing without shutting down the borders to encourage trading among states.

Already, this has sent danger signals to other ECOWAS countries in the region because the border closure is taking more time than expected which is a breach of international trade and treaties of which Nigeria is a signatory.

Oruche said: “What we are saying is let us find a way of encouraging trade among ourselves in this Sub Saharan Africa. We are saying that trade among ECOWAS countries is very low, it’s just 11 per cent or 12 per cent in terms of trade volume in the region and then, with this border closure, it has brought it to 7 per cent. So, what we are saying is that, we need to increase trade volume among ourselves rather than discouraging it. This border closure will hinder us from trading among ourselves that is the submission of my organisation to this issue of border closure.”