• Ghana’s land borders were closed on March 22, 2020 after the rise in COVID-19 cases
• A year on, the borders still remain closed despite agitations from some Ghanaian traders
• Irbard Ibrahim has called on government to gradually open the borders for businesses to bounce back
Since Ghana recorded its first case of coronavirus, land borders were closed and till date, the situation remains the same.
There have been several calls and agitations from traders, border town neighbours and some members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
They called on government to as a matter of urgency, reopen land borders for the smooth running of goods and services.
Social commentator, Irbard Ibrahim, sharing his thoughts on the development on GhanaWeb TV’s The Lowdown programme, opined that, government should open the land borders in phases.
In his view, government must insist and ensure that local produce are bought on the market instead of opting for foreign goods.
Citing Nigeria’s border as an example, he said inasmuch as Buhari was backlashed for taking such a harsh decision which affected neighbouring countries, he ensured that Nigerians ate local rice.
“We should open the borders incrementally because Nigeria shut down its border with Benin and people were so angry…because there was unintended consequences for Ghanaian traders, Beninois traders, Togolese traders but they felt Nigeria should eat local rice and Vietnamese, Philippino rice production rice companies were taking their rice through Benin and then crossing over through the porous borders but Buhari stood its grounds,” Irbard Ibrahim said on GhanaWeb TV’s The Lowdown show.
“Eat your own food, so that you empower the local industry and so for me, it’s all about looking inwards or opening up entirely,” he added.