Nigeria - Cameroon border
Nigeria Employers' Consultative Association (NECA) has said that by extending the closure of Nigeria's border till 2020, the federal government were toying with Nigerians welfare and prosperity of businesses.
The extension of the border closure was announced by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the border closure came into force on August 20, 2019 and will now end on the 31st of January, 2020.
On Monday, while the Director-General of NECA,Timothy Olawale was speaking on this development in Lagos, he argued that notwithstanding the trade imbalance between Nigeria its neighbouring countries, the citizens' wellbeing should be prioritized.
He said: " while we acknowledge the trade imbalance between Nigeria and neighboring country and the security challenges the country faces, the citizen's welfare and prosperity should not be sacrificed for the inefficiency of our border policy.
He only wishes that the coordination and management of this fiscal policies should be geared towards enterprise competitiveness and job creation and to eradicate poverty.
The DG further noted," Despite the many benefit earned from border closure, we are concerned that the policy comes without any palliative for legitimate local businesses, which negate the attempts at alleviating poverty, continuation in border closure will render more Nigeria jobless and hungry".
The NECA boss averred that the policy was more geared towards making profits and neglecting the harsh effects it has on households, businesses and investors.
Since the advent of the policy, prices of goods especially food items had increased so much that an average Nigerian now spend 70% of their budget on food.
He went on to explain how the government decided to close these borders because of excess smuggling and called on government to address the fundamental challenge, stressing that the government must take a broader look at the fundamental of its assumption as it is also stifling other legitimate business because of the inefficiency of the Custom Service to keep the borders safe.
He further noted that at a time when unemployment rate is 23:1 percent, underemployment at 16.6 percent and expected to reach 33.5 percent by 2020 and inflation rate on upward trend, government's fiscal and monetary policies should focus on sustainable enterprise, job creation and rapid economic development premised on wide range consultation with critical stakeholders.