Nigeria stands to lose $1.3 billion in commerce due to the closing of the Niger border.
The trans-Saharan road, a network of roads linking six African nations (Algeria, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Tunisia), has been closed, putting $1.3 billion worth of trade along the route in jeopardy.
Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Jigawa, Yobe, and Borno are seven states in northern Nigeria that are bordered by the trans-Saharan road corridor. Nigeria’s connection to its Sahelian neighbors who are landlocked depends on this commerce route.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) asked President Bola Tinubu to attack putschists led by Abdourahamane Tchiani if they restored deposed President Mohamed Bazoum to power. As a result, President Bola Tinubu closed the borders with the Niger Republic, endangering the economic activities along the trans-Saharan road.
“Many Nigerian truckers are stuck on the border between Nigeria and the Niger Republic; the majority of them traveled there to deliver products before the shutdown. According to Usman Shamsedeen, a bus driver who travels the trans-Saharan route, there are numerous questions over the condition of the items that are now lining up at border crossings.
According to figures provided by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, vehicles from Nigeria account for 40% of the 104,179 trucks that travel through the trans-Saharan road corridor each day.
In order to transport a consignment of Irish potatoes, we traveled from Jos to Niamey. We left Nigeria with all the required paperwork, but we are stuck here with no notion of when we would be able to go back home, Shamsedeen continued.
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Further research revealed that the residents of Illela, a border local government between Sokoto State and the Niger Republic, are feeling the heat from ECOWAS sanctions that have been placed on that country.
A local of Illela named Abdullahi Yusuf claimed that his community had worried the border closure would bring back the financial misery they had gone through during the last shutdown, and their worst worries had come true.
When compiling this story, attempts to contact Abdullahi Maiwada, the national public relations officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, were unsuccessful.
The International Trade Center estimates that Nigeria’s trade with Niger was worth $1.3 billion in 2020.
Amos Lungu, the ECOWAS spokesperson, said on Monday that the organization’s special summit on Niger will take place on Thursday in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
The 15-nation group had previously expressed strong opposition to the Niger coup, the sixth in the region in three years, but has since dispatched Abdulsalami Abubakar, Omar Touray, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, and Muhammad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, as envoys to the country.
“The border blockade has had a catastrophic effect on the town’s enterprises. Due to the border’s importance as a source of trade and commerce, economic activity has drastically decreased since it was closed. Many companies are having trouble surviving, and some have even been forced to close, according to Yusuf.
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After the ECOWAS announced its sanction against the Niger Republic, hundreds of trucks delivering food products were stuck at the border because shipping companies wouldn’t load all cargo intended for the Niger Republic, according to Yinka Adenuga, an analyst with a significant geopolitical research firm.
Because they were unable to continue to their goal in the Niger Republic, several truck drivers were denied permission by customs authorities to return to their Nigerian employers, according to Adenuga.
When compiling this story, attempts to contact Abdullahi Maiwada, the national public relations officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, were unsuccessful.
The International Trade Center estimates that Nigeria’s trade with Niger was worth $1.3 billion in 2020.
Amos Lungu, the ECOWAS spokesperson, said on Monday that the organization’s special summit on Niger will take place on Thursday in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
The 15-nation group had previously expressed strong opposition to the Niger coup, the sixth in the region in three years, but has since dispatched Abdulsalami Abubakar, Omar Touray, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, and Muhammad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, as envoys to the country.
Last Friday, the defense chiefs of the ECOWAS decided on a potential military action plan in the event that the country’s jailed president, Mohamed Bazoum, was not freed and restored. However, they stated that their heads of state would make all operational choices.
The bloc is not, however, cohesive. The ECOWAS members Mali and Burkina Faso’s military regimes have vowed to support their Nigerian counterparts if necessary.
The Malian army said on social media on Monday that both nations were sending delegations to Niamey to express their sympathy, while the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 showed a military aircraft from Burkina Faso landing in the Niger city at around 12:20 pm (11:20 GMT).
The deadline for the restoration of Bazoum should be extended, according to Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in an interview that was published on Monday.
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The diplomatic route is the only option, Tajani told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
“It is appropriate that he (Bazoum) be let free, but we are unable to do so. The US is quite careful in this regard. They cannot possibly begin a military operation in Niger, Tajani continued.
Some protesters have portrayed the situation as a patriotic struggle by the former French colony to maintain its independence in the face of imperialist meddling at pro-coup demonstrations in Niamey. Some people have waved Russian flags while making anti-French statements.
Amadou Hamadou Moumouni, a demonstrator, stated at a rally at the national stadium on Sunday that the demonstration’s goal was to demonstrate to the entire world and the international community that the demonstrators fully supported the military.
Sources: Business day