President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate opening of four land borders.

The announcement was made by the Minister of Finance at the end of the 28th virtual FEC meeting on Wednesday.

The borders are Seme in the southwest, Illela in Sokoto State, Maigatari in the northwest, and Mfun in the south-south.

The President also directed other land borders to be opened by December 31, 2020.

Ahmed added that the ban on the importation of commodities such rice and poultry products was still in force despite the reopening.

Ahmed said, “I am here to report that the President approved the recommendations of the committee that I chaired with the Minister of Trade and Investment, Minister of Interior, Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Security Adviser and Comptroller-General of Customs as members.

“This committee was mandated to review and advise on the reopening of the Nigerian borders and after recommendations, the President approved the reopening of four land borders, namely Seme in the South-West, Ilela in the North-West, Maitagari in the North-West of the country and Mfun in the South-South.

“So, these four land borders will be reopened immediately while the remaining borders are directed to be reopened on or before December 31, 2020.

“Mr President has also directed on the reopening of the borders that, while others are being reopened, the ban on importation of rice, poultry and other banned products still subsists and will be implemented by the border patrol team.”

But farmers’ groups, reacting to the reopening of the four borders, advised the Federal Government not to allow smuggling.

The Director-General of the PAN, Onallo Akpa, told news agency that the government must keep to its word by ensuring that frozen chicken was not smuggled into Nigeria again.

He said, “The Federal Government closed the borders and it has decided to open it up again and said it is for the good of all of us.

“However, the government must keep its promise that it made to us, poultry farmers. It assured us that frozen chicken would not be smuggled into Nigeria again.

“It assured us that the customs have been put on red alert to stop the smuggling of frozen chicken and that poultry imports into Nigeria has been banned. So it must keep to its words.”

The National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Kabir Ibrahim, also told news agency that the land borders would definitely be opened due to the trade agreements among African nations.

He, however, stated that the reopening of Nigeria’s borders would lead to the depletion of the country’s food.

Ibrahim said, “Opening our borders is what we must do because we have just ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area. So our borders have to be opened for us to be able to interact with our neighbours and do business.

“However, that could cause a flight of what we have in Nigeria because most of the people on the other side of our borders are people that we traditionally feed.

“So most likely food will go out of Nigeria to those places. The counter- reaction is very minimal because those people have very little to offer to Nigeria. Therefore Nigeria’s food could be depleted by the opening of its borders.”

On his part, the Director General of the LCCI, Dr Muda Yusuf, in an interview with The PUNCH, said although he supported the reopening of the four borders, government must strengthen border policing.

He said it was a welcome development and timely in view of the recently ratified  African Continental Free Trade Area by the Federal Government.

According to him, the move will also benefit small businesses and manufacturers that depend on cross border trade to grow their businesses.

He, however, noted that the security agencies needed to strengthen border policing in order prevent indiscriminate cross-border trade.

Yusuf said, “It is a welcome development. It would be beneficial to the economy and in consonance with the recently ratified AfCFTA. Many small businesses depend on cross-border trade.  Many manufacturers also leverage the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme to boost their business.  Many also source their raw materials from countries in the sub-region.

“But there is a need to strengthen the border policing and management mechanisms to avoid a relapse into the conditions that led to the closure in the first place.  The biggest challenge with border management is an institutional issue.  We need to demand accountability from the institutions that have the responsibility for border policing and management.”