Nigeria loses N130bn to corruption at land borders, says traders’ union president

Nigerian traders have said that the country in the last three months has lost whopping sum of N130 billion to land borders.

The president, National Association of Nigeria Traders, Mr. Ken Ukaocha who spoke to Journalists in Asaba after a thanksgiving ceremony held by one of his members yesterday, explained that Nigerians can only imagine the gravity of the situation when similar practices happening at the airports and seaports are taken into consideration.

“These past three months alone, Nigeria has lost more than N130 billion due to the porosity of our borders and the corrupt practices going along the border routes and this is for land borders only.

“We have not added the goings on at the airports and we have not added the ones at the seaports. “And these are selected land border. So you will know the gravity of the situation if you add up everything.”

Ukaocha called on the Federal Government to address the corrupt practices on the country’s trade routes especially in view of the fact that cross-border trade is key to economic recovery, revenue generation and growth.

“The unnecessary trade barriers created by non-transparent, burdensome rules and procedures, in turn, constitute vulnerabilities and breed corrupt behaviours,” he said.

The president of the association stated that unnecessary delays in the movement of goods have continued to increase operators’ and consumer’s losses as well as reduce the revenue that should accrue to the government. He added that the unnecessary delays in the movement of goods had further increased the cost of doing business.

He said sharp practices such as over-invoicing, false declaration of goods, illegal importation, smuggling, trafficking either in human or small arms, as well as drug peddling were being perpetrated on the trade routes on a daily basis.

Ukaoha disclosed that the association is working closely with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) towards tackling the corruption that goes on at border routes.

He said the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme would be used to promote trade and economic integration in the region. The Scheme was set up in 1979 as one of the first and immediate instruments of ECOWAS to galvanize the realization of development objectives of the region.

Ukaoha stressed the need for awareness campaign involving all trade-related committees and clerks to deepen understanding of the scheme and other related regimes.

He also called on ECOWAS to set up a dedicated portal for the scheme to ease access to information. Ukaoha
further called for the relocation of the National Approval Committee (NAC) of ETLS to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, the pioneer Majority Leader of the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Aneke Ifemeni, has applauded the proposal of the Federal Government to regulate and regularize the activities of illegal refineries in the Niger Delta region.

He said that the proposal, if well implemented, would greatly help the cause of the development of the Nigerian economy. Ifemeni, in an interview in Asaba, held that the proposal, on implementation, would help not only in boosting local stock of technical knowhow, but would also greatly enhance the stock of petroleum products available to Nigerians and, on that account, reduce their market prices, but would equally create jobs and boost the cause of peace.

The former Majority Leader and President of Okowa House-To-House Cooperative Society, also said that, aside all else, the measure would enhance the scope and quality of peace in the strategic Niger Delta region, hinged up the confidence of the local people in their ability to harness the natural resources in their area and boost revenue for the government, by way of taxation.

Besides, he said that the move would by the same token, ensure that the danger posed to the Niger Delta Environment by the effects of unregulated illegal oil refining activities and the destruction of their alleged illegal refineries, is eliminated by a cleaner production process.