President Buhari assures on re-opening of land borders

President Muhamadu Buhari on Tuesday said his government is looking into re-opening the land borders across the country.

The nation’s land borders had been shut since in August 2019 in a bid to curb smuggling and stimulate local production.

Buhari disclosed this during a meeting with state governors at the state house in Abuja on Tuesday.
“Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours, we are looking into reopening the borders as soon as possible,” Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, quoted Buhari to have said.

The president Buhari’s comment comes weeks after Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, hinted that Nigerian land borders may be re-opened soon.

Ahmed said after assessing the gains of the closure, the committee recommended to the president to reopen the borders.

“We have made an assessment, the president set up a committee to carry out an assessment and all the members of the committee recommended to the president that it is time to open the borders,” she had said.

“The objectives have been met in the sense that we have been able to work with our partners in a tripartite committee and reinforce the sanctity of the commitment that we made to one another so each side has learnt its lesson.

“Nigeria has been affected as well as our partners in terms of businesses so we will be expecting that the border will reopen very soon. The date will be decided by the president.”