Nigeria's land borders closed to all goods, custom service confirms

The head of the nation's customs agency sa"Nigeria has closed its land borders to movement of goods and has no timeline for reopening them" Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigerian Customs Service said in an interview held last week "All goods, for now, are banned from being exported or imported through our land borders and that is to ensure that we have total control over what comes in," President Muhammadu Buhari closed Nigeria's borders to imported goods saying the time had come to end rampant smuggling across the porous frontiers. The closure has had a devastating effect on Benin, Nigeria's neighbour to the west, which has been a key exporter of foodstuffs to Africa's most populous country.It has also pushed up prices for food stuffs such as rice at markets around Nigeria. Ali's announcement last week was the first official confirmation of a total shutdown in trade across Nigeria's land borders - including goods that had been moving legally. He did not give a timeline for any relaxation of the controls. The closure does not affect Nigeria's oil exports, which are exported almost entirely via the nation's ports and offshore oil platforms. Ali said that all imports should now come through the country's ports where they can be monitored more easily and generate much-needed revenue.