Notwithstanding the revenue increase the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, said it has achieved with the on-going partial border closure, exporters are counting their losses as countries within the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, sub-region have started rejecting Nigerian cargoes, apparently, as a form of retaliation against the land border closure.
This latest development, according to the exporters, is gradually crippling their businesses.
In a chat with Vanguard Maritime Report, Chief Executive Officer, Multi-mix Academy, an export oriented institution, Dr. Obiora Madu, disclosed that Nigerian exports within the ECOWAS region is decreasing due to the border closure, but he failed to give figures.
He stated: “It is definitely impacting negatively on the economy as the exports done within the ECOWAS region and our neighboring countries are now in decrease. These countries that benefit from the open border, since we have closed it, even though we used to export to them before, you don’t expect to get the level of cooperation that we are getting before because they are hit hard by these closed borders”.
He further admitted that exporting generally is becoming difficult as cargoes are now undergoing careful examinations before leaving the shores of the country. This, he said, has also impacted negatively on the volume and speed of export.
