Latest investigations have revealed that Nigeria lost a staggering ₦1.3trillion to smugglers of petroleum products during the 16-month closure of its land borders over alleged security breaches and abuse of international trade facilitation procedures.
The border closure, which crippled economic activities around the land borders across the nation also forced many young and aged men and women to resort to illegal businesses include the smuggling of rice, chicken, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petroleum among other products.
Throughout the border closure, smuggling of fuel especially at the Seme border and North Central region was the order of the day, as millions of jerricans of fuel of various sizes were seized and auctioned around those borders communities.
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For instance, in its 2020 official statement, Seme Customs Command said it intercepted 1,080,875 litres of PMS, with the Joint Border Patrol Team Sector 3 (JBPT) of the North Central region seizing 242 jerricans of PMS and nine drums of Automotive Gas Oil.
Investigations revealed that Nigerian petroleum products were also smuggled to as far as Sudan and sold at a higher price.
However, Nigerian businessmen who ply their trade between Lagos and some West Africa states like Togo, Benin Republic, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroun told Daily Sun, that smuggling of fuel was the major business for economic saboteurs during the border closure.
They said smugglers used both bush paths, creeks and waterways to carry out their practice while some bribed security agents along the border corridors to move the fuel to the neigbouring countries. They alleged that despite the Federal Government’s decision to reopen the borders, smugglers were still moving white products and other goods across the borders
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) has decried the ₦16 billion annual losses on container deposits by importers in the country over failure to return empty containers within the time specified by shipping lines.
Reports have it that shippers pay container deposits of ₦300,000 for a 40 feet container and ₦150,000 for a 20 feet container to shipping lines. However, the shipper forfeits the deposit if the container is not returned to the shipping line within the grace period.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK