THE Federal Government of Nigeria, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has approved the re-opening of the Seme Land Border for the importation of vehicles into the country.
According to media reports, this information was disclosed by the Director of Road Transport in the Ministry of Transportation, Ibrahim Musa, on Wednesday, June 21, 2023.
Musa, who spoke at the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, meeting organised between officials of Nigeria and the Benin Republic, revealed that the development followed complaints by freight forwarders operating at the Seme Border.
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”.
Similarly, the Customs Area Comptroller of Seme Border Command, Dera Nnadi, who also spoke at the event, lamented that the service 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”.
DAILY POST
