The Federal Government has assured Nigerians whose legitimate businesses are being adversely affected by the closed borders between Nigeria and the neighbouring countries that plans are ongoing to consider the re-opening of the borders.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, who gave the assurance on Monday during her briefings on the 2020 proposed budget in Abuja , said that government had opened discussions with the affected governments with a view to addressing the problems that led to the closure of the borders initially.
Specifically, the minister explained that the closure of the borders was directed by the government as a strategic step towards protecting the nation’s economy and forestalling economic sabotage efforts of smugglers and their accomplices to turn Nigeria into dumping ground for all forms of imported goods.
She clarified: “On the border closure, it is not forever. There will be an end to it. The government of Nigeria is currently in discussions with the governments of neighbouring countries, namely Niger and Benin Republic, we are negotiating to make sure that the challenges that brought about the closure of the borders are addressed on both sides, especially that our neighbours made a commitment that we signed unto several years ago. So, once those discussions are opened, the borders will be opened.”
Ahmed also restated government’s determination to bridge the budget deficit, deliver on infrastructure projects and create enabling environment for businesses, amongst other fiscal strategies, to boost revenues of government
On why the Public Private Partnership (PPP) project arrangements had not worked for the country, the minister linked the problem to the poor preparation of the project documents and promised that government was determined to reverse the ugly trend in order to attract the much needed private investors into the nation’s infrastructure development space.
She explained: “We have done a lot but they usually start and stop and a few have succeeded and the reason is that we have not been preparing the projects well enough. We noticed that as a gap and we have offers from development partners to support MDAs that have these eligible PPP projects to support them in packaging these projects.
“That will enhance our ability to attract private investments into those projects. The weakest link we have is the preparation on the PPP projects”, the minister added.
