President Muhammadu Buhari says the nation’s land borders that were shut in August 2019 will be reopened soon.
Speaking during a meeting with governors of the 36 states on Tuesday, the president said the borders were shut in the interest of the country. He cited smuggling as one of the major reasons for taking the action but said the closure of the border had yielded results
“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’s comment comes two weeks after Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, hinted that the +.
She had told state house correspondents that the presidential committee set up on the border closure had recommended reopening.
Ahmed had 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.”