The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has said that security challenges and cyber crimes in Nigeria would reduce if the border closure stays on for two years.
Emefiele reportedly said this while speaking at the 1st convocation lecture of Edo University on Friday, November 1st, 2019.
He said, “I can tell you that if we leave these borders closed for another two years, Boko Haram will reduce. I can tell you that Kidnapping and ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ will reduce because they will now see that the only place that they can make money is in agriculture and not in kidnapping people”.
The CBN governor said the government has recorded successes since it decided to partially close the land borders in August. He added that with the successes, many youths, who have taken to crime would have no option but to embrace agriculture.
According to the CBN Governor, most of the arms being brought into the country were smuggled in through the borders. But ever since the borders were shut, the development has yielded good results.
According to him, one week after the borders were closed, the President of the Rice Farmers Association called to say that all the rice in their warehouses had been sold. “The poultry people also called to say they have sold all their eggs,” he said.
Emefiele said that some neighbouring countries were undermining Nigeria’s economy by opening their countries for others to dump their goods into Nigeria, adding that Nigeria economy needed to be put in place to guarantee real growth.