ThisDay reports that President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday signalled Nigeria’s readiness to reopen its land borders shut in August 2019 to curb commodity and small arms’ smuggling.
According to him, since neighbouring countries, have now learnt their lessons with the border closure, there is a need to review the decision.
But the president, who spoke at a meeting with governors of the 36 states of the federation, which held behind closed doors in the State House, Abuja did not give a definite time on when the land borders will be reopened.
“Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours, we are looking into reopening the borders as soon as possible,” he said.
A statement by a presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, said the president tasked the governors to work closely with traditional rulers and community members with a view to improving local intelligence gathering and complimenting the work of security agencies.
The newspaper says that almost 70 percent rise in domestic airfares have attributed it to the weakening exchange rate, paucity of operating equipment, high cost of aircraft maintenance and increase in the price of aviation fuel.
THISDAY findings revealed that air tickets for economy class that were being sold between N20, 000 and N30, 000 in July, has now increased to between N60, 000 and N70, 000; while business class tickets that were being sold for N50, 000 is now between N70, 000 and N80,000.
There are indications that fares would increase further as the yuletide draws nearer. The Chief Executive Officer of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi, told THISDAY, that henceforth, tickets would be very expensive and there might not be enough aircraft seats because there is not enough operating aircraft to meet passengers’ demand. \
Sanusi said the increase in fares was also a reflection of the dollar scarcity, noting that this was happening at a time airlines were yet to recover from the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The exchange rate of the dollar has a big impact in the aviation industry because everything we do have dollar component because spares are acquired with foreign exchange, we pay for insurance in dollars because local insurance companies do not have the capacity to insure aircraft fully, so it is expected that tickets will be very expensive.
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| The Guardian reports that export-bound goods worth about N868 billion might be wasted at seaports, unless the Federal Government tackles obstacles inhibiting export trade.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had directed exporters to register with the Nigeria Export Proceeds (NXP) agency before exporting their goods. Some of them have failed to meet deadlines for registration and had their cargoes stuck at seaports.
Exporters have consistently appealed to CBN and other government agencies to liberalise the process to encourage struggling entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has threatened to embark on a three-day warning strike from today, December 9, over deplorable state of access roads to seaports in Lagos State.
The Shippers Association Lagos State (SALS) has appealed to the union to shelve the planned action considering the volume of export cargoes trapped in the ports.
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| The Punch report that against the backdrop of the N5 reduction in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) announced by the Federal Government, fuel marketers have said it is not possible to sell the product at N162 per litre amid the current market realities.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, had announced the petrol price cut at the end of a meeting with labour leaders which began around 9pm on Monday and ended at 1:30 am on Tuesday.
“Our discussion was fruitful and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which is the major importer and marketers of petroleum products, and customers have agreed that there will be a slide down of the pump price of PMS and that the price cut will get us about N5 per litre and that the price cut will take effect from next Monday, a week today,” he had said.
Top officials of the marketers’ associations who spoke with our correspondents on Tuesday said the price decrease had not been communicated to them, adding that they only read media reports that the government had reached an agreement with the organised labour to reduce petrol price by about N5 per litre.
The Nation says that the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) on Tuesday scored the Port & Cargo Handling Services (P&CHS) Limited very low on automation and port processes, lamenting that it takes a cargo about four months to exit the terminal via barges.
Speaking when the management of the agency visited its Executive Secretary, Mr Hassan Bello, said P&CHS scored 25 per cent out of a possible 100 in the area of port automation.
“There are issues we will like P&CHS to work on. These issues bother on efficiency and a host of others. Government is trying as much as possible to fix the roads, which is about 75 percent completed. We know the roads are bad, but we will not take that as an excuse for Nigerians to be exploited.
“We know that P&CHS has outlets where containers are stemmed to, to avoid port congestion. However, we expect this to be done at zero cost to the shippers. We have heard instances where P&CHS bills shippers for stemming cargoes to bonded terminals. This is unacceptable. It is against the international contract of carriage and affreightment.
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