• How Infrastructure Deficit Can Undermine AfCFTAWithout basic infrastructure and social amenities, life in any society could be arduous. This appears to be the story of residents in major border towns across Nigeria, especially traders who traverse the communities daily to eke a living. A recent visit by The Guardian to some of the border towns showed that they suffer from massive infrastructure deficit.
As a result observers have expressed the view that if the nation’s trade corridors were given a facelift with proper infrastructure, facilities and institutions, it would reduce transportation costs and time, while boosting trade. Chikanda is far from development. It lacks pipe borne water and hospital among other basic amenities that should make life meaningful for its residents and traders.
Salami explained that the challenges are the same across all Nigerian borders, pointing out that residents at Seme border usually cross to Benin to treat themselves because Badagry is about 15 kilometers away. “If you want to minimise smuggling, you have to provide infrastructure and create jobs for them; you don’t leave them to suffer and resort to illegal trade.
A community leader, Balogun Olokerete, who simply identified himself as Mr Olaniyan said, “We have no telecommunication network in Okèrètè. We rely on network waves from Benin Republic. We cannot be connected unless we call that person and we have to code it,” he said. MAIGATARI is the border town with the Republic of Niger. It has an international cattle market, which is one of the biggest cattle markets in the country because it supplies over two million heads during its weekly market, trading in horses, camels, cattle and other livestock between Niger, Mali, Chad and Cameroon.
Baso said electricity supply to the community is also unreliable, urging the government to take advantage of the high intensity of sunlight in the terrain in providing solar power to the community. The outlook of Seme border is slightly different because of its proximity to Lagos and Ogun states . The intervention of the United Nations changed the story of Seme a little with the construction of a modern border structure and provision of scanners. However, Seme is not spared from infrastructure decay, as the international road from Mile 2 to Seme is still in a sorry state.
An international trade expert, Akudo John, in a chat with The Guardian, said: “Regardless of how many human and material resources a country possesses, it must relate with other countries, since no country can survive in isolation. This necessitates the involvement of countries in international trade.