FG okays re-opening of Seme border for vehicle importation

The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the re-opening of the Seme land border for the importation of vehicles.

The Director of Road Transport in the Ministry of Transportation, Ibrahim Musa, made the disclosure on Wednesday.

Musa, who spoke at the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, meeting organised between officials of Nigeria and Benin Republic, revealed that the development followed complaints by freight forwarders operating at the Seme border.

He said: “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.

“The former minister made us prepare a memo to that effect. It was considered and sent to the government.”

Similarly, the Customs Area Controller of Seme Border Command, Dera Nnadi, who also spoke at the event, lamented that the service has noticed a reduction in its revenue since the importation of vehicles through the land borders was suspended by the immediate past administration.

Nnadi said: “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.

“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.”