Johnbosco Agbakwuru -Abuja

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday the partial closure of Nigerian borders has been beneficial to the country.

He also expressed his administration’s willingness to implement the decision of the tripartite committee comprising Nigeria, Benin, and Niger on the partial closure of the country’s land border as soon as the report is received.

President Buhari, who stated this during an audience with the outgoing President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), Mr. Bashir Mamman Ifo,  and his successor, Dr. George Nana Donkor, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the partial closure of the borders had given Nigeria a number of insights.

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He said: ‘‘We have saved millions of dollars. We have realised that we don’t have to import rice. We have achieved food security.

‘‘We have curtailed the importation of drugs and proliferation of small arms which threaten our country.”

He thanked the outgoing ECOWAS Bank President for the improvements recorded in his eight-year tenure and urged his successor to build on those achievements.

The outgoing bank chief informed the President that the bank had been transformed from loss-making to profit-driven with commitments from ECOWAS member-states doubling to $1.4 billion.

Vanguard