CBN governor justifies borders closure

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the closure of Nigeria’s land borders has helped create “jobs,” justifying a move that has not only impacted the economies of the country’s neighbours.

“So when you asked, what is the benefit, the benefit of the border closure on the economy of Nigeria, I just used two products – poultry and rice,” Emefiele said in Abuja after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday .

“The benefit is that it has helped to create jobs for our people, it has helped to bring our integrated rice milling that we have in the country back into business again and they are making money.”

The Nigeria government had in August, ordered partial closure of land borders to curtail smuggling of rice and other products into the country, citing non-compliance of neighbouring countries with ECOWAS protocols on the transit of goods.

The move intends to create an opportunity for local producers of commodities such as rice, vegetable oil, palm oil and other agricultural produce to increase production and meet local demand.

However, criticism has trailed the border has many Nigerians lamented the high price of food commodities like rice, poultry, and vegetable oils.

The country’s inflation numbers also became the first casualty of policy-induced pressure with a 0.22 percent rise to 11.24 percent in September, against 11.02 in August.

The average prices month-on-month basis, rose by 1.04 percent in September, in both food (13.5 percent) and non-food (8.9 percent) items, particularly the prices of bread and cereals, oils and fats, meat, potatoes, yam, and other tubers, fish and vegetables.

But the CBN governor maintained that the border closure has improved the country’s economy abundantly. He said rural communities are bubbling because there are activities, as rice farmers are able to sell their produce.

“The poultry business is also doing well, and also maize farmers who produce maize from which feeds are produced are also doing business,” Emefiele said.