IN ABUJA: Economy doing better with border closure – central bank

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Monday insisted that neighbouring countries must engage with Nigeria before the Nigerian border is reopened.

The border was closed few weeks back due to the substandard products that are smuggled and dumped into the Nigerian markets.

Emefiele spoke with State House correspondents after a closed doors meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He also said the economy is doing well with the closure of the borders.

The border closure, he said, is helping to create more jobs for Nigerians, while local producers of rice, and poultry, among others, are now able to sell there goods.

Meanwhile, rice farmers have appealed to the Federal Government to provide them with affordable loan facilities to boost production to reduce the price of the commodity as they described the closure as a welcome development.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the price of a 50kg bag of local rice, which sold for N14,000 before the closure of the country’s borders on Aug. 19, now goes for N22,000.

The farmers, who called for the loans in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yester-day, noted that the current price of rice was too high.