By Ifeoma Ikem
The president, Association of Micro Enterprises of Nigeria (AMEN) and the National President Ambassador For Peace/Enlightenment Foundation, Prince Saviour Iche, has called for reopening of Nigeria’s border.
Iche who made the call on Saturday said he did not see any positive impact of the closure on the economy rather it worsened the situation.
He said that over 75 per cent of local products were still being exported out of the country while only 25percent are consumed in Nigeria.
“Cost of living is high, the border closure has not yielded any positive change, rather many are going out of business as a result of the Federal Government’s insistence of not reopening of its land border for continuous trade with neighbouring countries.
“Nigerians are living above the little income earned on a daily basis, over millions of youths are unemployed and the masses cannot afford the local products in the market due to high cost of food stuff’’.
According to him, `we should shield our pride, things are not normal, why are we suffering and smiling enough is enough.
“The whole world is just recovering from the outbreaks of pandemic but only Nigeria welcomes her citizens with hardships, within three months PMS and electricity tariff have been increased.
“As a manufacturer, the neighbouring countries have embarked on alternatives which some of them have started producing locally to fill the gap created by Nigeria border closure’’.
Iche also pointed out that even farmers and SME cannot access loans to start local production.
“There is no business that will grow without funds, we have absorbed enough patience as no local producer is smiling to bank.
“We, the Association of Micro Enterprises of Nigeria (AMEN) are demanding for the cost of petroleum products to come back to former price and also federal government should tell us what is happening to our marketers,’’ he added.