By Steve Agbota, styvenchy@yahoo.com
Over the years, the issue of extortion, multiple checkpoints and other man-made factors have been crippling cross-border trade along Seme-krake route.
Stakeholders especially the clearing agents, traders and transporters have on several occasions written to Federal Government to address the menace, especailly with regards to security personnel’s high-handed along this corridor.
Unfortunately, the authority has not been able to surmount the challenge despite so many pleas by the various stakeholders operating around the border as the challenges keep crippling trade.
Any shipper going through the Seme-Krake border route always face hell in the hands of security personnel stationed to safeguard the corridor. These security agents mount checkpoint at every kilometer. Shippers and travelers must be stopped at every checkpoint. This, according to stakeholders, is impeding trade facilitation.
Recognising this menace, last week, the International Trade Center (ITC) visited the management team of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) in Lagos to present its study on how to collect data to tackle the challenges impeding cross-border trade, especially multiple checkpoints.
Part of the challenges the delegation of the ITC raised was the rising checkpoints and sexual harassment of female traders by security officials stationed at every checkpoint.
ITC is a co-implementer under the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade Program, which aims to improve intra-regional agricultural trade at border crossing points.
However, Daily Sun learnt that there are 53 checkpoints between Mile 2 and Seme border. These checkpoints that serve as extortion points were mounted by security personnel stationed along the border corridor.
Speaking during the meeting at the Council’s headquarters, Associate Programme Officer, ITC, Richard Eke-Metoho, said the visit was part of the team’s ongoing study to identify areas for improvement in trade facilitation, particularly at border crossing points.
However, he lamented that female traders are fast becoming subject of sexual harassment along the Seme-Krake trade route.
“We have had instances where women moving goods along the Seme-Krake trade route have been sexually harassed by security officials stationed at different checkpoints.
“Officials of government agencies stationed at these routes in the border area sometimes ask for sex in exchange for allowing goods to pass. The situation can be that bad at the border areas for female operators,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of NSC, Pius Akutah, emphasised that trade facilitation is a major initiative of the Council and pledged to provide the necessary support to ensure the success of the study.
He noted that the study would strengthen the Council’s ability to formalise informal trade at border areas, gather statistics, and plan for trade volumes, adding that the focus of the study is on agricultural products, which is a significant area of potential for Nigeria, not only in the African region but also globally.
“Trade facilitation is one of the major aspect of what we do so we are going to give you the necessary support to achieve the success that is desired.
“The study will help us to plan and develop more skills in terms of what we do at the Border Information Centre. Shippers Council is a partner and I want us to take our partnership to the next level that will focus on engagement with our stakeholders,” he said.
Meanwhile, the General Manager the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Okafor Stephen lamented that between Mile 2 and Seme border, 53 checkpoints abound.
He lamented that the various checkpoints along the Mile 2 to Seme border affords state and non-state actors the opportunity to extort truckers carrying goods along the route.
“I am not too conversant with issues that abound along the roads inside or after the border area, but for roads within Lagos, I know that between Mile 2 to Seme border bus stop, our members always have to contend with 53 checkpoints.The issue of extortion is on the rise every day and it seems nothing is being done to stem the ugly menace,” he said.
Speaking with Daily Sun on the development, former Acting National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto said there are lot of problems on that axis and it supposed to be an international route, saying it is unfortunate that it has been taking over by security agencies in area of duplication, excessiveness and overzealousness.
“We need a total haul of our architectural system along Idiroko and Seme axis. And until one of the leaders of these agencies is made scapegoat, there will not be sanity. Customs too has its own challenges there because once it is night you will see many of unapproved checkpoints Police, Anti-bomb and all the security agencies are also culpable,” he said.
However, urged the government to do something serious about the issue, if not that means that route is unfriendly in terms of international business and people know the implications of it.
“So government must be seeing doing something seriously about it. Particularly, the IG of Police must design security architecture in that area and our women must be protected. If there are now molested and rape, you know what it means. Before you know it now, Nigeria will be in the black book of international community.
“It is very unfortunate. The only solution is for government to wake up rejig the security architecture in that area. There are some officers who have been butted out and they are still parading themselves as officers within that axis. I don’t want to pin it down to one agency, virtually, all the agencies are affected,” he added.
A former President, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Eugene Nweke said what the people talking about is not a new thing within the trade corridor of land frontier because the land frontier is an international border trade, saying the land frontier has been facing with bottlenecks or an impediment to trade.
“Sometimes in 2008 with some foreign journalists and members of World Bank, we tried to undercover the trade barriers, impediments to trade flow within the land border frontier. The corridor starting from Abidjan going down through Lagos, what do we see is what we have just mentioned. What was moved as motion under the ECOWAS agreement was for us to have what is called Single Administrative Document (SAD) for people who are properly classified as trading public”, he added.
He said not every passenger is a trader because a lot of passengers do experiment the free border gate pass without passport, as some of them just want to enjoy themselves to travel and go round West Africa as tourists.
“But if you are looking at the trading public, those who move cargo from one country within the West African sub-region to the other for the purpose of trying to make profit, those ones are the trading public.
“But for some people, SAD is meant to document these traders and once you present the SAD from whatever origin it takes you through where you are going or through the border. The Customs and other security agencies see it, they adopt it. But that move was thwarted in 2012.
“Now, we have come back to what we called the implementation of free trade agreement, known as AfCTA. With this AfCTA, you trade across region, then it means the AfCTA which is ongoing has taking over what will have considered a regional bloc, a regional trading agreement which is ECOWAS,” he explained.
He further explained that there is a bigger and a wider picture now, saying in the wider picture; the idea is that women should be encouraged to trade in tomatoes and in some of the perishable goods.
According to him from investigation, some of them can also trade in some fabric materials, saying women have been at the forefront of trading some of these articles.
He said the reason why women have been harassed it because the system has not been properly structured and a national single window needed to be in place.
He said a national single window should not conceptualise only at the seaport but should target four modes of transportation, saying it should not be only about seaport, airport, land border but it should also be about partner trade because today gas is being pumped from Nigeria to Niger.
He said Nigeria must has a holistic approach to single window in order not to have a mindset that national single window is all about the three critical key components of Customs operations.
He said there is need for a one-stop shop, adding that the one-stop shop must be integrated, cutting across all the signatory states within the ECOWAS.