Economist wants FG re-open land border, tackle control challenges

Prof. Ndubisi Nwokoma, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Analysis and Research (CEPAR), University of Lagos, has urged the Federal Government to revisit the closure of the nation’s land borders.

Nwokoma, who gave this advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said the opening of the land borders closed since August 2019 was due.

According to him, what the Federal Government needs now is to  open the borders and address challenges in border control.

”The benefits being experienced from the border closure will be for a short time.

“I expect the Federal Government to open the land borders and focus on addressing the numerous challenges in border control, if it  has not started that already,” he said.

NAN reports that the Federal Government on Aug. 19, 2019, closed the nation’s land borders to goods traded with Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The  government’s decision is to check smuggling of goods to protect the economy.

Nwokoma also said that the government should revisit  unconventional monetary policies.

According to him, return on capital or savings should be higher  than inflation rate, else savings may  dry up and affect availability of investible funds.

The economist said that Central bank of Nigeria  should fine-tune the monetary policies, noting that negative return on capital (low savings rate and high inflation rate) would act as disincentive to savings.

He added that  insecurity and uncertainty in the economy would discourage private sector operations and foreign capital inflow. (NAN)