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ABUJA\n(Reuters) – Nigeria and neighboring countries Benin and Niger have agreed to\nset up a joint border patrol force to tackle smuggling between the West African\ncountries, they said in a communique on Thursday.<\/strong> ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria and neighboring countries Benin and Niger have agreed to set up a joint border patrol force to tackle smuggling between the West African countries, they said in a communique on Thursday. Foreign ministers from the three countries met to discuss smuggling following a decision by regional giant Nigeria, which has Africa’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nForeign ministers from the three countries met to discuss smuggling\nfollowing a decision by regional giant Nigeria, which has Africa’s largest\neconomy and biggest population, to close its land borders to trade until at\nleast Jan. 31, 2020.
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\nNigeria launched a partial border closure in August to tackle\nsmuggling of rice and other goods. And last month the head of customs confirmed\nthat all trade via land borders had been halted indefinitely.
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\nThe joint communique from the meeting in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja,\nsaid the Benin and Niger delegations had appealed for the immediate re-opening\nof Nigeria’s borders.
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\nThe concerns were noted and the delegates agreed on the “establishment\nof a joint border patrol team comprising the police, customs, immigration, navy\nand state security services of the three countries”, the communique said.
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\nThe force will hold its first meeting in Abuja on Nov. 25 and 26 and will later\nadvise on the re-opening of the borders.
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\nThe delegates also agreed that the ministers of finance and trade from the\ncountries would set up a committee to promote intra-regional trade, and said\nthey would ensure people crossing their borders would display travel documents\nrecognized by the Economic Community of West African States regional bloc.<\/strong>
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\nSince taking office in 2015, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has\nintroduced policies aimed at curbing imports and smuggling, to boost local\nproduction.
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\nDespite being Africa’s top crude oil producer, Nigeria imports most of\nits refined fuel due to the moribund state of its refineries.
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\nSome 10-20% of Nigerian fuel is then smuggled to neighboring countries,\naccording to the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, as gasoline is\nheavily subsidized in the country and prices are higher in neighboring\ncountries.<\/strong>
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\nIn July, Nigeria signed up to the African Continental Free Trade Area,\na project to create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc, despite its fears that it\ncould be flooded with cheap goods from competitive neighbors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"