SEME BORDER: FOUR MONTHS AFTER NIGERIA/BENIN 12 POINT BILATERAL AGREEMENTS, WHAT NEXT?

It is over four months that the feelings of the critical stakeholders at Seme-Krake were aroused  over the rumour that President Bola Tinubu might soon reopen the Seme land border fully for importation of vehicles and movement of other goods and services including rice, in order to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians due to years of border closure.This issue was heightened by the information given by Mr. Ibrahim Musa, Director, Road Transport Federal Ministry of Transportation at the ECOWAS Monitoring Team during their visit to Seme-Krake Joint Border Post on Tuesday, June 21, 2023.According to Mr. Musa, the freight forwarders operating at the Seme Border had made an appeal to the former Minister of State for Transportation, Alhaji Jaji Sambo during his last visit to the border, asking for the reactivation of the border and this request was granted by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) “I was here with the former Minister of State for Transportation and the Freight Forwarders pleaded that the border should be reactivated for free movement of goods and services. The Minister made us to prepare a memo to that effect. It was considered and sent to the government,” Mr. Musa said. The former Customs Area Controller of Seme border command, Comptroller Dera Nnadi mni who was very enthusiastic over resuscitating the foremost land border corroborating this view from Mr. Musa said “the Honorable Minister of Transportation, the immediate past one, 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.” 

Meanwhile Comptroller Nnadi mni called on Nigerian exporters/importers and other investors to take full advantage of the lift on the ban on export by the government and ensure that they obtain the necessary documents from the right authorities to operate within the land border.Speaking also, the Head of ECOWAS delegation, Mr. Maliki Ashoke, Head, Road & Railways, ECOWAS Commission, said the essence of the visit was to take stock of all activities in the Corridor since the last visit over a year ago and hear the challenges being faced by operators which include Customs, Immigration and others from both countries. According to him, huge resources were expended to train personnel from Nigeria and Benin Republic on the use of these facilities but they are no longer being utilized.He urged both countries to come out with their challenges so as to enable the ECOWAS make budget for them. Since the closure of the border and subsequent reopening by the former administration of 

Muhammadu Buhari the trade relations of Benin Republic and Nigeria has not been very cordial. Importers have being lamenting on the high charges slammed on Nigerian-bound transit cargoes by the government of Benin Republic, making it impossible for them to bring in transit cargoes through the Seme land borders any more. In some quarters, this has been viewed as a retaliatory action by Benin Republic for the irrational action of closing the borders without notice by the former administration.If not, how would Nigerians currently pays about CFA2.2m as charges on 40ft transit containers, as against CFA500,000 paid by other neighbouring countries like Chad, Niger to move the same consignment out of their port. It was on this note that cargo importation through Seme border has dropped drastically in the first quarter of 2023 as a result of this retaliatory policies introduced by the government of Benin Republic on Nigeria bound import and export cargoes.The former chairman, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Alhaji Lasisi Fanu, was headlong on normalizing this issue during his tenure as the Chapter chairman. His views also indicated that what was happening was not far from the retaliatory policies introduced on Nigeria import and export bound cargoes by the government of Benin Republic.According to him, the government of Benin Republic calls the payment administrative charge, but it is definitely not so. “Third party goods are also known as transit cargoes and they originate from South Korea, China, London among others, but those containers are not coming anymore and even if they come, it may be once in a month. The only goods coming into Nigeria through Seme border now are ETLS. The 3rd party goods are not coming anymore because of the charges we pay in Cotonou.“For instance, Nigerians pay between CFA2m to CFA2.2m in Cotonou. If we come to Seme border, we pay normal duty for Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) before containers can come into Nigeria and it’s the same Pre Arrival Assessment Results (PAAR) for Cotonou that will be used in Nigeria,” Fanu said. It was on this note that the people rejoiced that the man who knows the job is now on board and could pacify the neighbouring country of Benin which by now is ready for a better negotiation and bilateral agreements for the best practice on international trade.The coming of CGC Adewale Adeniyi has shown some lights at the end of the tunnel. Speaking during his maiden working visit to the Seme Command of the Nigeria Customs Service and Seme-Krake Border communities recently, the Customs CG noted that national security is the responsibility of everyone and should not be left for government agencies alone.He said that the borders were closed for security purposes but not all of them were reopened. He assured that they have already started discussions along this line. Policies that are aimed at enhancing national security are supposed to be dynamic policies, at different times they would be reviewing them. 

Speaking at a meeting with the business community, CGC Adeniyi said that reopening of the borders fully, depends on the readiness of the local communities to corporate with the customs and other law enforcement agents in combating insecurity and smuggling.According to him, the security agencies need intelligence from the communities on the nefarious activities of smugglers, and to properly protect the border areas against illicit importations.“It is going to be a symbiotic relationship that would be beneficial to all of us. By the time this is done, we can now start discussing about allowing vehicles to come in through the borders. We can now start considering allowing food to also come in through the borders if we cannot have enough capacity to feed ourselves.“These are conversations that would happen within us when we have gotten assurances from the communities that they would be ready to assist the agencies in doing their job,” the CGC said. To further confirm that the working relations with Benin Republic will definitely come back to normalcy, the CGC embarked on a working visit to the Customs Administration of Bénin Republic where agreement was reached on twelve critical issues bordering on promotion of the ECOWAS trade liberalization scheme and the facilitation of the movement of goods and community products in particular.According to a press release by, CSC Maiwada, the Service’s spokesperson on behalf of the Comptroller General, the two Customs chiefs unanimously agreed at the end of the meeting and a joint communiqué signed by the two delegations reads as follows: “The continuation of efforts to promote the ECOWAS trade liberalization scheme and the facilitation of the movement of goods and community products in particular;  Facilitation of the issue of Laisse passe for a short stay in one of the countries of means of transport registered in the other country; The removal of barriers and other obstacles to legitimate trade and the establishment of Customs units when the traffic justifies it; Strict compliance with transit rules; Harmonization of the list of products prohibited by the two countries; The rapid integration of Nigeria into the Interconnected System for the Management of Goods in Transit (SIGMAT), which already includes the Customs Administrations of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo; Strengthening the fight against cross-border crime through cooperation, intelligence sharing and the pooling of resources;  Holding meetings twice a year to discuss matters of common interest; The reactivation of the joint committee for monitoring trade and transit relations; The revival of consultation frameworks of border customs units with the active participation of the private sector; Promoting good relations with border populations, professionalism and tax compliance and securing the international supply chain.” These views were reviewed between CGC Adeniyi, his Benin Republic counterpart, the Director General of the Customs Administration in Benin, Mr. Alain Hinkati, and Customs partners Webb Fontaine and Benin Control.According to the report, “The objective of the visit is for us to review friendship with the customs administration of Benin and also to deepen collaborations in areas of common interest.“I saw the attention that was given to the port of Cotonou, the progress that is being made in reducing clearance time, ensuring that there is no congestion at the Port and, more importantly, using technology to drive operations of the Customs Administration.“The attempt which Benin Customs has done towards trade facilitation is something that Nigeria Customs will also be doing particularly to look at where we can use our processes to reduce the cost and time of doing business”, CGC Adeniyi stated.Four months after these agreements, what is happening to the bloated hope of the traders along this corridor?