The federal government has approved the reopening of the Semede border to allow vehicle imports.
Ibrahim Musa, director of the Ministry of Transport’s Road Traffic Division, made the announcement on Wednesday at an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting organized by Nigerian and Benin officials.
Speaking during a visit by the ECOWAS monitoring team to the Sem-Clark joint border post, Moussa said the development followed complaints from freight forwarders operating at the Sem border.
He said: “I was with the former transport secretary as freight forwarders pleaded to reopen borders for the free flow of goods and services.
“The former minister asked us to prepare a memorandum for this. It was considered and sent to the government.”
Dera Nnadi, Regional Director of Customs at Seme Border Command, said that since the import of vehicles was banned at the land border, the sector’s revenue has decreased.
Nadi said:One of the former transport ministers responding to some of our and stakeholders’ demands, promising to bring them to the Federal Executive Council, the FEC, was how to fully open up this border.
“The ministry has informed us that the memorandum has been written to the FEC and has been adopted and will be handed over to the new government, who assured us that all requirements have been adopted.”