Boycott Nigerian Goods – GUTA tells Gov’t

By Justice Dzido On Oct 21, 2019

Nana Poku, Greater Accra Regional Secretary of GUTA

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has called for a total boycott of all Nigerian products imported to Ghana.

The move, the traders union believes, will force the Nigerian government to open up its land borders for foreign goods.

The Nigerian government, in its Prohibited and Restricted Imports list banned the importation of some 43 products including rice, cement, textile products, cocoa butter and other products it currently manufactures.

Nigerian President Mahamudu Buhari in August 2019 ordered a partial closure of the Togo-Benin border to check the smuggling of cheap goods into Nigeria.

Following that directive, Nigeria’s borders were completely shut down in September 2019.

Reacting to this, the General Secretary of the Greater Accra Regional branch of GUTA, Nana Poku blamed the Nigerian government for what he described as an ”unfair treatment to foreign traders.”

In return, he expects the Ghana government to prevent Nigerian traders from importing goods into Ghana, ”if this will be implemented very very, it will go a very long way for future benefits.

”We can’t be treated like this in our own country. If Nigeria government has called for ban on foreign products from entering their country. We should do same to theirs. This payback time. Our government can’t accept their own whiles ours are being neglected. Let’s boycott Nigerian products as payback to their government’s action. How can we be slaves in our own country?”

He argued that the issue, if not checked, could hamper the Continental Free Trade Area.

Last week Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Ghana’s foreign and regional integration minister, visited Geoffrey Onyeama, her Nigerian counterpart in Abuja and appealed to the Federal Government to allow goods from Ghana country into Nigeria.

Over the weekend the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at its meeting in Washington, US, noted that the border closure would impact negatively on Nigeria’s neighbours – Republic of Benin and Nigeria – and appealed for a speedy resolution to the issue.