The Federal Government of Nigeria has authorized the reopening of the Seme land border for vehicle importation.
Ibrahim Musa, Director of Road Transport in the Ministry of Transportation, made the announcement on Wednesday.
Musa, speaking at an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting between authorities from Nigeria and Benin Republic, said that the development was the result of complaints from freight forwarders operating at the Seme border.
“I was here with the former Minister of State for Transportation when the freight forwarders pleaded that the border should be reactivated for the free movement of goods and services,” he said.
“The former minister made us prepare a memo to that effect. It was considered and sent to the government”.
In a similar vein Dera Nnadi, Customs Area Controller of Seme Border Command, who also spoke at the event, bemoaned that the service has seen a decrease in revenue since the previous administration prohibited car importation through land borders.
“The former Minister of Transportation, responding to some of our requests and from the stakeholders, promised to take them to the Federal Executive Council, FEC, one of them is how to fully open this border,” Nnadi said.
“The Ministry has informed us that the memo has been written to FEC and it was adopted and that it would be given to the new government, he assured us that all the requests were adopted”.
