Nigeria is undoubtedly the biggest economy in West and Central Africa, and has the biggest population.
It is no surprise then that Nigerians are the biggest producers of goods and services to its neighbours. Goods ranging from household items like soaps, pots and pans, cooking oil and soft drinks to textiles, machinery and vehicle parts can be found in most countries of these two regions.
Several years ago, the former Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, closed the country’s borders with its neighbours due to what his government saw as some economic activities—especially the smuggling of petroleum products across Nigeria’s land borders into such countries.
The border closure is still in effect, but it is doubtful if it is effective.
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I recently travelled to Sudan by road from Nigeria through Cameroon and Chad and the CAR, and what I saw first hand is that trade between these countries is still alive and well.
The route I took started from the city of Maiduguri, in Nigeria’s North-east, then on to Cameroon, then Chad and the CAR, finally ending up in Sudan’s South-western state of Junub Darfur.
While in Maiduguri, I saw how goods like kola nuts, tarpaulins, cosmetics and soft drinks were being loaded onto trucks and cars, preparing them for export to Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.
From Maiduguri, the journey towards Chad and Sudan starts off over a tortuous and sometimes treacherous terrain. The “highway” between Maiduguri and the border town of Gamboru is usable only up to Dikwa, a distance of about 90 kilometres, because the road is tarred, while the rest of the journey to Gamboru—which is a little over 56 kilometres, is over a sandy, sometimes muddy meandering road.
The terrain is flat, and one can see for miles and miles on either side of the highway. There was a constant stream of all manner of vehicles in either direction. I noticed large trucks, to medium sized ones, down to regular cars and pick-up trucks making the journey in either direction.
One very important thing I must mention is the heavy presence of security personnel on this stretch of highway. I counted close to thirty checkpoints manned mainly by soldiers and policemen. But near Gamboru, there are other uniformed paramilitary officials from the Nigeria Customs, the Nigeria Immigration Service and the NDLEA – the illicit drug enforcement agency.
There are of course the ubiquitous ‘Civilian JTF’ in their distinctive blue pick-up trucks. The CJTF are a group of young men who are volunteers that work with the military to maintain peace and order following the Boko Haram insurgency that ravaged the area.
Each vehicle passing in either direction is inspected at each checkpoint, which have signs beside them warning drivers not to bribe any officers on the highway. The warning is there, but in practice the bribes are openly and readily shared by these drivers to each and every officer that ‘confronts’ them.
At Gamboru, all these vehicles, except the big trucks, off-load their goods. They are then transferred onto other trucks whose drivers have the necessary knowledge and clearance to cross the border into Cameroon.
This process usually takes a day or two to complete, and these goods from Nigeria are on their way. Just across a bridge, and across the border is the town of Fotokol, which is like a sister town to Gamboru. One can see a steady stream of these two towns’ inhabitants walking back and forth across the border on foot, and on three wheeled rickshaws popularly called Keke Napep in Nigeria.
At Fotokol, the Cameroonian border officials inspect the goods and if satisfied, these goods are then taken over a similar flat untarred terrain straight to the city of Kousseri—a distance of almost a hundred kilometres.
Kousseri sits smack on the easternmost end of Cameroon – just across the Chari River from N’Djamena, the Chadian capital. It is a bustling city of commerce, whose inhabitants engage mostly in trading inside the vast market that takes up most of the city’s buildings.
This border area reminds me of the Gamboru and Fotokol border crossing between Nigeria and Cameroon because of the bridge across the river that connects the two nations.
Here too, another round of inspections is done by officials of Cameroon. I saw hundreds of trucks laden with goods from Nigeria waiting to be processed. These drivers have now travelled over untarred and very difficult terrain – over a distance of more than 250 kilometres from Maiduguri to the Chadian border with Cameroon.
After crossing into Chad, the sprawling city of N’Djamena awaits. N’Djamena city limits stretch to the very edge of the bridge the spans the border. This area known as Ngueli has a dual carriageway starting from the very edge of the bridge all the way into the city centre.
For many of these drivers, their journey has come to an end after crossing into Chad. The goods they have brought here all the way from Nigeria are usually loaded onto smaller pick-up trucks straight into the city of N’Djamena.
But the rest of these truck drivers do not get to see the clean and well-ordered streets of the Chadian capital though.
They are most interested in moving these Nigerian goods straight to their final destinations—which are in eastern Chad, near the border with Sudan.
As I mentioned before, N’Djamena sits right on the border with Cameroon, the westernmost location of any city in the country. But these goods need to get to other locations in central, southern and eastern Chad.
The city of Abeche (pronounced Ahbeyshey), which is over 700 kilometres away is the next point of call for most of these Nigerian goods. This city is the fourth largest city in Chad, and is the capital of Ouaddai (sometimes written as Waddai) Region. The second and third largest cities are Moundou and Sarh.
Moundou is over 400 kilometres south of N’Djamena, while Sarh is in the southernmost part of Chad on the border with the Central African Republic.
Most of these Nigerian goods end up on the Sudanese border with Chad. Most drivers do not have the necessary clearance to drive into Sudanese territory anyway, so the goods are transferred onto other trucks at Adre – a border town on the Chadian side, which is just a couple of kilometres from Geneina (pronounced Junaynah), the capital city of West Darfur State in Sudan.
But the war in Sudan has brought an abrupt halt to the flourishing trade between Sudan and its western neighbours. Goods like hides and skins, incense, and Arabian textiles called “lapaya” favoured by women in the region used to make their way on the return journey back to Nigeria.
I have seen dozens of trucks – on either side of the Sudanese and Chadian border – waiting for a lull in the fighting to get the goods they carry across to eager customers.
On the Sudanese side, the war has made everything very expensive. A bottle of coca-cola in Chad costs about 600 naira, while inside Sudan, it costs about 900 naira. The prices of more essential goods like petrol and flour have more than tripled over the past three months.
I have seen dozens pick-up vehicles, each carrying 12 drums of benzene (petrol) or diesel into Sudan from Chad. The drivers tell me that they make millions of francs per trip, and since there are no border guards on the Sudanese side, their goods are smuggled in without any checks.
The war in Sudan has many unintended consequences – one of them is that in many areas in Sudan, there is no government presence, and the fighters of the RSF seem not interested in checking for contraband or illegal immigration. They are more interested in setting up “toll gates” and collecting money from drivers.
Thousands of traders make this journey from Nigeria to Sudan and back every week, and the Chadian authorities are making the most of it. At the border into Chad from Cameroon, each trader is charged a minimum of 2500 francs (about 26,000 naira) for what they call a “visa”.
At Abeche too, traders pay the Chadian Immigration about 5,000 francs just for “passing through” the city towards Sudan.
The various transport companies too are making huge gains transporting people across Chad. The fare from N’Djamena to Abeche costs about 25,000 francs, while the fare to Mongo from N’Djamena costs about 17,500 francs.
Some Chadian officials I spoke to have expressed real worry at the impact the Sudanese conflict is having on their country’s economy. Already, they say they have noticed a lull in the number of travellers into Chad from Nigeria.
