James Agaba exports bathroom slippers from Nigeria to Burkina Faso through the Nigeria-Benin border. But since the closure of the border in September, he has not exported any item.
He had hoped that the border would be re-opened in November so that he would do some exports in Christmas, but his hopes have been dashed by the jarring news of extension of the closure till January.
He is already planning to shut down in case the border closure is extended beyond January 31, and this includes sacking his six staff members, three of who are university graduates.
“I am a small business, and I cannot afford to do this export by sea. That will be too expensive,” he said.
“I wonder how this so-called African trade agreement will work when any country can just wake up one morning and shut its borders,” he said, seething in anger.
Agaba’s sentiments capture the trend across Africa, where countries shut borders against each other for economic, social and political reasons, despite recent commitments to the imminent African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Apart from the closure of Benin border by the Nigerian authorities to curb smuggling of petrol and rice, Sudan, in September, ordered closure of its borders with Libya and Central African Republic, citing security and economic dangers.
In June, Kenya shut its borders with Somalia for security reasons. Kenyan authorities cited increased illegal trade, as well as human and drug trafficking in the area as major reasons for the action.
In April this year, Eritrea unilaterally closed all border crossings with neighbouring Ethiopia less than a year after the two countries made peace.
Before the outright closure in April this year, Ethiopia-licensed vehicles travelling to Eritrea from the Ethiopian town of Rama had been asked for permits in December 2018, according to a Reuters report.
“We did not receive any prior notice,” Reuters quoted Liya Kassa, spokeswoman for the regional administration in the Tigray region which borders Eritrea, as saying in December 2018.
In March this year, Rwanda shut its borders against Uganda over a diplomatic row.
In June, three civil society organisations sued Rwandan and Ugandan governments on behalf of women traders suffering financial losses owing to the border closure.
The civil society groups said it contravened the 1999 Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community and violated the economic rights of women to engage in trade. Deaths were reported along the border, with security forces accused of perpetrating the acts.
In August, Equatorial Guinea said it was building a Trump-like border wall to stop Cameroonians and West Africans from illegally entering its territory.
Kenya, Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, and Uganda, among others, are among countries that have signed onto the AfCFTA. Eritrea is not part of the AfCFTA.
Analysts believe the AfCFTA may fail unless African countries understand the impact of unilateral trade policies.
“The demands of sacrifice imposed on businesses and the citizens by border closures are disproportionate and unbearable,” Muda Yusuf, director-general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said in an email statement.
Nigeria has signed onto the AfCFTA and it is expected to remove barriers to trade.
The AfCFTA seeks to liberalise trade among African countries. It is targeted at a ‘borderless’ Africa, with an eye on a single market for goods and services on the continent.
It is easily the largest trade agreement since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1994 and a flagship project of Africa’s Agenda 2063, targeted at creating a single market for 1.2 billion people and exposing each country to a $3.4 trillion market opportunity on the continent.
“Border closures are against the spirit and letters of the AfCFTA,” said Ike Ibeabuchi, CEO, MD Services Limited, a servicing and manufacturing outfit.
“If we continue this way, there will be a lot of unilateral trade decisions that will be taken across the continent in AfCFTA era. This could defeat the AfCFTA objectives,” he further said.
Nigeria has extended its border closure with Benin and there are indications that the trend will continue well into 2020.
“Our land borders have been closed and this is affecting import of raw materials and export by our members,” Ede Dafinone, chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Export Promotion Group (MANEG), said.
According to Yusuf, complete shutdown of cross-border trade between Nigeria business and their counterparts in the West African sub-region has grave consequences for investments and jobs.
Olu Fasan, member of the International Trade Policy Unit (ITPU) of the London School of Economics and Political Science, said the border closure will enrich local producers, without increasing their productivity and competitiveness, while also harming the interests of Nigerian exporters and consumers.
“Truth is, Nigeria’s deep-seated protectionism is not compatible with its international legal commitments. It would have to decide whether to comply with its international obligations, legally invoke the escape provisions in international trade agreements or withdraw from them altogether,” he said in a Monday column in BusinessDay.
