Nigeria will keep its land borders closed to trade until at least January 31, 2020, a customs spokesman told Reuters.
Nigeria launched a partial border closure in August to tackle smuggling of rice and other goods. Last month the head of customs confirmed all trade via land borders was halted indefinitely.
Joseph Attah, spokesman for the Nigerian customs service said the “present phase” of the closure would end on January 31, 2020 and that would not be the end of the closure.
“The operation is in phases, it will continue until the set objective is attained,” Attah told Reuters.
A private memo to colleagues by customs service comptroller for enforcement, Victor Dimka, called the closure operation an “overwhelming success”, but said there were some strategic objectives yet to be achieved.
The memo did not outline these.
