The federal government on Wednesday said the embargo on the importation of rice, poultry and other restricted items remains in place, in light of President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval for the reopening of Nigeria’s land borders.

Finance minister Zainab Ahmed, who announced the president’s resolve to finally reopen the borders which have been shut for more than a year, said the exercise would commence in batches.

Briefing State House correspondents on Wednesday evening at the end of this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting, Mrs. Ahmed disclosed that four land borders will be immediately reopened, while others will follow through before December 31.

Among those listed by the minister to be reopened immediately include Seme border (Southwest), Ilela and Maigatari borders (Northwest) and Mfun border (South-South).

In his submission, the minister for industry, trade and investment Niyi Adebayo disclosed that the perennial issue of smuggling has been strongly addressed.

“We have many advantages to the border closure,” the minister said. 
“As you are all aware before the border closures a lot of petroleum products were being smuggled out from the borders to West African countries and the border closures have created a situation that has tactically stopped that,” Mr. Adebayo stated.

He added that “the issue of smuggling of rice to the country has reduced drastically,” while authoritatively stating that the illegal importation of firearms has been stopped.

Nigeria’s economy is expected to get a facelift with the reopening of the land borders, having slid into its worst recession in many decades last month. Experts overwhelmingly blamed border closures, which came into effect in August 2019, as a driving force behind the nation’s economic woes.