In northern Nigeria, where a cross-border trade has flourished for years, local businesses are suffering as a result of a group of West African countries’ decision to close their borders with Niger in order to punish the coup plotters there.
Read also: Nigerian Customs Officially Announces Closure of All Borders with Niger Republic.
In order to pressure the coup plotters into reinstating Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted last month by soldiers in his Presidential Guard, the group known as ECOWAS limited financial transactions and closed the borders between Niger and its member countries.
But Nigeria, on the other side of the 1,600 km (995 km) long border, is feeling the effects of the sanctions against the junta.
According to a study by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Niger is responsible for 75% of the entire value of exports from Nigeria’s informal cross-border commerce. In its most recent report from 2016, the bank estimated that in-border commerce in goods with Niger was worth 828 billion naira ($934 million) annually.
Numerous trucks, the most of them carrying food and other perishable commodities, were kept stranded for days in Katsina state in north-west Nigeria as a result of the border’s closure and traffic restrictions on neighbouring routes. Locals claim that the cost of livestock, animal products, and various other goods typically imported from the Niger city of Maradi have soared.
The limitation on border crossing is being enforced by Nigerian authorities, but the action has also affected nearby traffic, including truckers who were instead travelling to Nigerian border towns rather than Niger.
On August 7, 2023, stranded trucks carrying cargo can be observed in Jibia, Nigeria, at the Nigeria-Niger border. Businesses and citizens in Nigerian cities where trade with Nigeriens had soared for years are being negatively impacted by the West African regional bloc’s decision to close borders with that country in order to sanction the coup plotters there.
Usman Kaura, a truck driver, claimed he was transporting sacks of garri, a sort of cassava flour, valued roughly 15 million naira ($17,000), from Nigeria’s Benue state to another area of Katsina when he and other drivers became stranded for five days in the hot Jibia border zone.
“The garri can spoil at any moment,” he said. “We are still inside Nigeria but yet we are stopped.”
The coup plotters next door have not been persuaded to restore Bazoum despite the sanctions imposed by the West African organization ECOWAS, which has a history of its own coups.
Since the coup on July 26, the mutinous soldiers have established Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as the leader of the country and have pledged to respond against any military action taken by ECOWAS member states. A proposed visit by officials from ECOWAS, the African Union, and the United Nations was also refused by the junta.
Four coups in West Africa since 2020 do not augur well for Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu and the current ECOWAS chairman, at least in terms of the group’s future plans.
According to Oluwole Ojewale of the Institute of Security Studies, which focuses on Africa, Tinubu wants to leave a positive impression on the world stage. The “coup is the first test of Tinubu’s leadership,” he claimed, referring to Niger.
Locals in the border zone claim that business owners have raised prices for other commodities as a result of the border closure.
According to Muawiya Ibrahim, a resident of Katsina, the price of a bag of corn weighing 100 kilogrammes (220 pounds) now costs about $56, up 24% from the previous week.
He lamented the divisions created by the border closure for the people on either side of the boundary. “We shared so much, we even married amongst each other,” he said.
“To say Nigeria and Niger are one is true,” Ibrahim added.
