The Federal Government has issued conditions for reopening of Nigerian land borders closed recently to the importation of goods even as the government maintained that neighboring countries must respect the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) rules of origin if their good would be allowed into Nigeria.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, gave the conditions after a resolution reached at the end a Ministerial Committee meeting to review the temporary closure of Nigerian land borders in Abuja on Monday. He pointed out that the country would no longer tolerate repackaging of goods coming into the country. He added that any imported goods for Nigerian market must come in its original form and be escorted directly from the port of member states directly to Nigeria border.
Onyeama said that it is the requirement of the Nigerian government that any good imported from ECOWAS member states must have the 30% local input. These conditions he said would be presented to the neighbouring countries of Benin Republic and Niger at tripartite meeting scheduled for next two weeks in Nigeria.
He explained that the measures have become incumbent on the Nigerian Government to ensure that the country does not end up as dumping ground, adding that the conditions apply to both goods and human beings coming into the country and apply to all ECOWAS member states.
He said that it is an absolute requirement of the government of Nigeria, that any import coming through Nigeria’s land borders, “when those import transit in goods, that is to say when they are coming from outside the ECOWAS region and imported into an ECOWAS member state, that those goods should retain their original packaging, there should be no modification whatsoever to the packaging of those goods imported into an ECOWAS member state destined for Nigeria.
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“So the original packaging and they must be escorted from the port directly to the designated entry point in Nigeria border and presented to Nigeria customs with the packaging intact and those goods escorted.
“This is an absolute condition that will not be compromised. So any transit in goods coming into this country from transiting ECOWAS member state must ensure that. For goods predominantly produced in ECOWAS member state, the rules of origin must be satisfied.
“So any goods coming from an ECOWAS country claimed to originate from an ECOWAS member state must be over 30% input of an ECOWAS member state to avoid situations where countries outside ECOWAS region would merely export their goods into ECOWAS members states repackaged as those coming from ECOWAS member state, with little value addition and exported to Nigeria.
“So we would absolutely insist on the respect of ECOWAS rules of origin in ensuring that they actually did come from ECOWAS member states. The Minister noted.
He also said that Nigeria will insist on absolute dismantling of all the warehouses along Nigeria’s common borders with countries with which it has borders within a certain distance from the borders. “No more warehouses and we will insist on them been dismantled,” he said.
On transportation of goods within ECOWAS and across borders, Onyeama said the country will accept conditions for the packaging of goods that would be transported by roads across Nigeria’s borders to maintain best practices in packaging of those goods. He insisted on proper recognized packaging of those goods stressing that “No longer would we have good of all shapes and sizes just going through the borders.”
On the vexed issue of free movement of persons, the Minister said it is the absolute requirement of the Federal government that all persons coming into Nigeria through land borders must present themselves at recognized entry points first and foremost and must have recognized travel documents. He pointed out that as far as Nigeria is concerned recognized travel document means official passports.
“Now a number of countries have identity cards and EVIWAS is moving to a position where other forms of identity would be captured within ECOWAS mechanism but that has not happened. Until that happens, all we would recognize in Nigeria for now as travel documents are officially recognized passports. So no longer would we accept anybody coming into the country through land border with anything other than recognized passports.
He said that for countries such as Ghana and others that have goods stocked at Nigerian borders, the Comptroller General of Customs after the conditions that have been agreed upon will now go back and after further internal engagement would be able to announce when the countries outside the tripartite group-Nigeria, Benin and Niger and other countries will be informed as to when Nigeria would start allowing goods to come into the country.
“We would like to take this opportunity also to acknowledge the very positive steps that have been taken by both Niger and Benin Republic. As you would know, they have put in place law as banning the exportation of rice and we believe also that this will go a long way in addressing mischief that this border drill was designed to address. That is where we are at this particular point in time,” Onyeama added.
Also speaking, Comptroller General of Customs, Hammed Ali was positive that an agreement would be reached with the two affected countries, stressing that “once an agreement is reached then we start implementing it.” He also added that once the agreement is signed, “then we would now agree on what would be the consequences if we do breach the agreement.”
He also noted that the reported 31s January date for reopening the borders, is an operational deadline and not sacrosanct.
Others present at the meeting were the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola and the Director General of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), Rufai Abubakar.
