FG Admits Closure Of Border Raises Inflation

The Federal Government of Nigeria has admitted that the recent executive order by President Muhammadu Buhari to close Nigerian borders has led to a rise in inflation rate in the country.

Meanwhile, the government has also assured that the closure was temporary as the government expected the neighbouring countries to respect the ECOWAS protocols to enable the reopening of the borders.

This was made known by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed while fielding questions from State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Finance Minister during the briefing explained that the benefits of the border closure outweigh the consequences or any hardship people may be complaining about.

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The nation’s annual inflation rate was said to have increased to 11.61 per cent in October 2019 from 11.24 per cent in the previous month, reaching the highest since May of 2018.

It was also reported that prices rose mainly for food.

But the Finance Minister said, “I need to remind us that the border closure is temporary. We have really advanced in our discussions between ourselves and our neighbours. We expect that the outcomes of those discussions and agreements is that each party will respect the protocols that we all committed to and then the borders will be open again.

“What we are doing is important for our economy. We signed up to the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) agreement, we have to make sure that we put in place checks to make sure that our economy will not be overrun as a result of the coming into effect of the ACFTA. That is why we have this border closure to return to the discipline of respecting the protocols that we all committed to.”