BORDER CLOSURE: GHANA PLANS CABINET-LEVEL MEETING WITH NIGERIA

Ghana’s Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has disclosed that Nigeria’s closure of its land borders is negatively
affecting Ghanaian traders.

Ghanaweb.com reports that Kojo, made the revelation in an interview with Ghanaian journalists and reportedly called on the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, to engage Nigeria on the issue.

The situation, he reportedly asserted, was “a terrible one” and that in response, a Ghanaian delegation is to meet with Ghanaian traders
who have had their goods’ movement stalled at Nigeria’s borders after the August 21, 2019 border closure directive by Nigeria’s Federal Government.

According to him, Ghana cabinet members would seek to leverage the November 8 and 9, 2019 ECOWAS summit in Abuja, Nigeria to engage their Nigerian counterparts to further address the issue.

“It is very important for ECOWAS as a bloc to engage Nigeria on the
closure of the borders because moves like this have a way of
negatively impacting the West African Economic Integration project,”
he said.

It wopuld be recalled that the Ghanaian Foreign Affairs Ministry had last month assured members of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) of its plans to pursue an inter-cabinet agreement between Ghana and Nigeria to resolve issues arising from the border closure.