A joint committee of the national assembly says the borders
of the country are open owing to the amount of commodities that smuggled in.
The joint panel of the house of representatives and senate
committees on trade and industries took the position on Friday when Jumoke
Oduwole, minister of trade, appeared before it to defend the 2025 budget
proposal of her ministry.
In August 2019, the administration of former President
Muhammadu Buhari closed the country’s land borders to stop the illegal
importation of drugs, arms and agricultural products into Nigeria from
neighbouring West African countries.
In December 2020, Buhari ordered the reopening of four land borders. However, the borders are still closed.
Fatima Talba, the lawmaker representing Nangero/ Potiskum
federal constituency of Yobe in the house, said the borders were never closed.
“Going by free movement of people and even criminals across
the borders, it is time for us to stop fooling ourselves with border closure,”
Talba said.
On his part, Francis Fadaunsi, chair of the senate committee
on industry, said the border closure policy is adversely affecting the economy.
“For example, on rice production alone, the largest
percentage of the 4 million tonnes shortfall is being smuggled into the country
since local producers are only producing 3 million tonnes out of the expected
consumption rate of 7 million tonnes,” he said.
Paul Kalejaiye, the lawmaker representing Ajeromi /Ifelodun
federal constituency of Lagos in the house, said the implementation of the
closed border policy needs to be explained.
“Are all borders across the nation closed or those closed
are from a segment of the country,” he said.
Oduwole said N3.8 billion was earmarked for capital
expenditure in her ministry’s 2025 budget proposal.
She said N4.65 billion was allocated for personnel cost and
N1.45 billion was fixed for overhead, adding that her ministry’s projected
revenue is N2.4 billion.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com