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ABUJA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Nigeria is ready to reopen its
land borders to trade for the first time in more than a year
after closing them to try to stamp out smuggling, the finance
minister said on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said those involved had
learned from the closure and worked together on joint border
patrols. "We will be expecting that the borders will be reopened very
soon," Ahmed told journalists, explaining that the president
would determine the exact date.
Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, closed its land borders
in late 2019 over concerns about illegal exports of
price-controlled gasoline and illegal imports of food stocks
such as rice and poultry, which it believed harmed local
producers.
Inflation, particularly for food, rose steadily after the
border closure and hit a two-year high in OCtober. Earlier this month, Nigeria ratified its membership of the
African free-trade zone due to be launched in January, after
initial reluctance to join the bloc for fear of exposing local
industries to dumping by countries outside Africa.