Nigeria ready to open border following Buhari, Akufo-Addo meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister discloses

This, according to him, is due to some meeting held between Ghana’s President, Akuffo-Addo and the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Tijani was speaking in an exclusive interview with Empire News’ Emmanuel Ohene-Gyan on the sidelines of a geostrategic event dubbed the MEDays International forum in Morocco’s city of Tangier

Nigeria unexpectedly closed its land borders to all movements of goods, banning both imports and exports in the country.

The unexpected closure of the border received widespread condemnation from many people and has also had devastating effects on countries like Ghana.

But the MP said Nigeria has agreed to open its borders after President Muhammadu Buhari meets his counter President Akufo-Addo of Ghana.

“Even though we have ECOWAS protocols, we must situate our national laws into that of ECOWAS, Nigerians decided to close its borders because they decided to protect their country, because they think they want to encourage local production of rice and others, and when we approached them they said Ghana is not their target but it is affecting us so after series of meetings they agreed to open the border with some conditions,” he stated.

Adding that ” I am privy to information that Customs officers will follow goods that are of Ghanaian origin into Nigeria and hand them over to their counterparts vice versa so that there will not be the possibility of repackaging of goods somewhere and I’m sure we will overcome it, I’m very optimistic.”

Mr Tijani could, however, not be specific with timelines except to say the borders will be open after the meetings between the two Presidents.