(Adds quotes, details and background)
By Abraham Achirga and Libby George
ABUJA/LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Nigeria has closed its land
borders to all movement of goods and has no timeline for
reopening them, the head of the nation's customs agency said, as
part of an effort to curb smuggling.
"All goods for now are banned from being exported or
imported through our land borders and that is to ensure we have
total control over what comes in," Hameed Ali,
comptroller-general of the Nigerian Customs Service, told
reporters in Abuja on Monday.
Africa's largest economy launched a partial border closure
in August as part of an effort to thwart smuggling of rice and
other goods, and there had been widespread local media reports
of a broader closure. But Ali's announcement was the first official confirmation
of a total shutdown in trade across Nigeria's land borders -
including goods that had been moving legally.
"We are strategising on how best the goods can be handled
when we eventually get to the point where this operation will
relax for the influx of goods," he said. He did not give a
timeline for any relaxation of the controls.
The closure has no impact on Nigeria's economically crucial
oil exports, which are shipped out almost entirely via the
nation's seaports and offshore oil platforms.
Ali added that despite the land border closure, it would
still be possible for goods to cross at points equipped with
special scanners, but did not say where those locations were.
Ali said reopening the borders would depend on the actions
of neighbouring states, and that as long as they and Nigeria
were not in accord on what goods should be imported or exported
overland, the frontier would remain shut.
The move is likely to make a variety of food items, such as
rice, tomatoes, poultry and sugar, more expensive for consumers.
While it was illegal to bring these items into the country via
land borders even before the border closure, they had been
widely smuggled.
"Already we are seeing effects on prices and inflation and
I'm guessing we will see effects on Q3 GDP once that data comes
out in November," said Nonso Obikili, director at the Turgot
Centre for Economics and Policy Research in Abuja.
Exports are also restricted, which will stop movements of
cocoa and sesame seeds via land borders, Obikili said.
Ali noted that legal exports could continue via seaports,
but Nigeria's congested terminals and dilapidated road and rail
networks make it difficult to quickly change export routes.
Deliveries of gasoline in Nigeria had also dropped by nearly
20 percent during the early stage of the border closure,
according to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency.
Gasoline, whose prices is capped in Nigeria, is frequently
smuggled across land borders and sold in neighbouring countries.