Tag Archive for: Border Closures

More than a year after it closed its land borders, Nigeria is looking to reopen them ‘as soon as possible’, President Muhammadu Buhari said Tuesday. Mr Buhari stated this during a meeting with governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja. The president said the closure of the borders was also an attempt to control the smuggling of weapons and drugs from neighboring countries.

“Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours, we are looking into reopening the borders as soon as possible,” the president was quoted as saying by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu. Nigeria first showed its willingness to re-open the border last month, amid skyrocketing food prices and increased calls for reopening of the borders. The move came after the nation fell into its second recession in five years, according to GDP data released by the National Bureau of Statistics for the third quarter of 2020. Many have attributed the economic recession partly to the border closure that has been in place since August 2019, which, among others, has seen inflation rise to a 30-month high.

Policy experts have said that lifting the blockade will help check the recession, the nation’s worst in decades, and ease the economic hardship faced by Nigerians. Last month, the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said Mr Buhari would soon receive a report of a presidential committee to advise on the reopening of the borders.

Mrs Ahmed said although the committee set up by Mr Buhari had done an assessment of the gains of the closure and had recommended to the president to reopen the borders, the report had not been submitted. The committee has as members the ministers of finance, budget and national planning, interior and foreign affairs, she said, noting that the report would be submitted “once members of the committee sign the report.

“We have made an assessment. The president set up a committee and we have made an assessment and all the members of the committee agreed and are recommending to the president that it is time to reopen the borders,” she said. “The objective has been met in the sense that we have been able, over these couple of months, to work together with our partners in a tripartite committee and do a joint border patrol together and reinforce the sanctity of the commitments that we made to each other.

“So, each side has learnt its lessons. Nigeria has been affecting our partners in terms of businesses that we have in Nigeria as well. So, we will be expecting that the borders will be reopened very soon. The date will be decided by Mr President.” On Tuesday, although Mr Buhari said the government would act on the border closure issue “as soon as possible”, the president did not specify the date.

 

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The African Travel and Tourism Association (Atta) has called for international inbound tourism to resume as “close to September 1 as possible”.

“By opening up as close to September 1 in a responsible manner, we will save the entire 2021 inbound tourism revenue stream and tourism in SA,” the trade association, which promotes tourism to Africa, said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

It said that although parts of the travel and tourism sector have been earmarked for return in levels 2 and 1, depending on their risk profiles and the spread of Covid-19 in SA, the association said it has already seen the inclusion of business travel in level 3 through successful lobbying for earlier reopening of this critical sector.

It said the country’s tourism private sector, under the Tourism Business Council of SA (TBCSA), has been engaging on the tourism recovery strategy being developed by South African Tourism.

Atta said the TBCSA was advocating the earlier phased reopening of international tourism to SA this year to as close to September as the risk-adjusted strategy allows, based on a phased approach.

It said this data-driven recovery strategy has been presented to relevant government authorities and is guided by the government’s risk-adjustment strategy to ensure safety and stringent health-focused protocols to guide and assist stakeholders within the travel and tourism value chain.

The association said the protocols are important because they will inform the timelines for the reopening of international tourism.

Inbound tourism employed more than 375,000 people in SA, it said, of which an estimated 40,000 jobs had already been lost.

The association said the summer high season runs from September to March and represents 60% of the annual business for tourism.

“The nature of international inbound tourism is such that we have long lead times between booking and travel,” it added.

The proposed phased recovery strategy provides for an initial six to eight week preparation phase, followed by a trial phase where safe source markets with similar risk profiles and stages of the pandemic were allowed to travel to SA.

The association said these travellers would be vetted, all stringent safety protocols would be in place and the focus would be on low-contact products and low-risk areas, traditionally with low density.

In the next phase, SA would further open key markets and expand the experiences on offer, until the next phase when air access is opened fully.

The association said it was confident that SA’s tourism economy could be opened up safely if global best practice was followed.

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The Department of Home Affairs has published a new directive focusing on travel restrictions during South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown.

The directive amends the country’s earlier lockdown regulations to allow for international travel in specific circumstances – including the return of a South African national or permanent resident to his or her place of employment, study or residence, outside of the country.

The directive states that these citizens must do so at their own cost and flights are subject to capacity.

It also notes that the citizen must, at least five working days in advance of the intended date of travel, provide the Department of Home Affairs with the following documentation:

  • A copy of his or her valid South African passport;
  • A letter of confirmation of admissibility or the validity of the visa or permit, issued by the relevant diplomatic or consular mission or authority of the receiving country;
  • Where transiting through another country, proof of permission to transit through such country;
  • Proof of the means of travel and the intended date of departure.

The directive further states that South African citizen or a permanent resident who, for any reason, has been outside the republic during the period of the national state of disaster must for purposes of admission be subjected to such prescribed screening or examination procedure.

Other changes

The directive also introduces a number other Home Affairs changes including:

  • Home Affairs offices will now allow for the late registration of birth and solemnisation and registration of marriages;
  • The owner or person in charge of a vehicle being used for transport outside of South Africa must provide a full manifest;
  • Extension of validity for asylum seeker permits;
  • Provision for people in South Africa on an expired visa.

You can read the full directive here.

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Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].