Ahead of the January deadline set by the Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS for the re-opening of all shut land borders, the Nigeria Customs Service has said it is awaiting the directive of the Federal Government before it takes another line of action.

Recall that the ECOWAS Commission in collaboration with the West African Health Organisation WAHO had organised a Sectoral Ministers virtual meeting on the reopening of all land borders in the region effective January, 2022 to facilitate the free movement of persons.

Meanwhile, the Sectorial Ministers in charge of Regional Integration, Interior, Trade, Health, Transport and Finance from the 15-member states of the ECOWAS in its virtual meeting held on December 6, 2021, deliberated on the measures to ensure the coordinated, safe, secure and orderly reopening of land all borders within the region.

The Ministers also validated the report and recommendations made by technical experts which outlined the essential practical modalities to be put in place for the implementation of the ECOWAS COVID-19 directives on hygiene measures for the gradual and coordinated reopening of borders.

Deputy National Public Relations Officer of the service, Deputy Comptroller Timi Bomordi, who spoke during a telephone interview, noted that the service has yet to receive any official directive from the relevant government ministry, presumably, the Federal Ministry of Finance, which is its supervising ministry on the reopening of the borders.

He noted that as an agency of the government, it’s primary duty is to implement government’s fiscal policies and should not do that based on newspaper reports or from other sources of information rather than that from the relevant ministry of the government.

“Listen, I do not doubt that the ECOWAS Commission may have set a certain deadline for the reopening of land borders within the community, which have been shut for one reason or the other, but what I am telling you is that we must get an official communication in the form of a directive for the service commence implementation.

“As soon as we receive such directive, we will swing into action but as long as we have not received any official directive, the service will wait. You remember that some borders in the country including Nigeria’s border with the Republic of Benin was among the borders that were shut then but was also reopened on the directive of the government and the service played its role in the entire exercise”, he argued further.

But sources however hinted that some of the border commands of the service are currently putting measures in place for the commencement of hitch-free revenue collection and other activities in anticipation of government’s directive. For instance, one of such commands has held series of meetings with some import duty collecting banks, especially with a view to reestablishing connectivity between the banks and the Customs server, which was disconnected as a result of the border closure.

It is believed that the gradual reopening of the borders, which Nigeria, among some other member nations have already taken the lead, requires proper coordination between the states and the land-based actors in charge of border control in order to apply the community texts on the free movement of people and goods in the context of the existing health and security crisis.

It was in line with this that the ECOWAS and the West African Economic Monetary Union WAEMU, through their member states, expressed commitment to the reopening of borders to facilitate the movement of people and goods and to define measures to revive regional trade and supply chain between member states.

This was sequel to a directive by the 59th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government to the ECOWAS Commission to work with member states and the WAHO on the modalities to accelerate the reopening of land borders in a safe manner during the pandemic in line with the agreed ECOWAS Harmonised Guidelines for the free movement of people and goods.

It would be recalled that the Nigerian government had in August 2019 ordered the closure of all the country’s land borders with neighbouring West African countries, citing worsening insecurity across the country, especially the northern region, which was believed to have been partly fuelled by the booming illicit trade in arms and light weapons.

Many other ECOWAS countries had also shut their land borders as part of measures to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of which had been opened since January last year, which prompted the ECOWAS Commission to set a deadline of January 2022 for all land borders to be reopened to enhance free movement of goods and people.

Experts believe that a coordinated and harmonised reopening of the land borders would aid economic recovery among member states, given the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the several weeks of economic lockdown. This is in addition to boosting intra-African trade, which is currently at its very lowest ebb compared to other regions.