Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum ferried over 20 kilometres on the Nigerian side of Lake Chad in Baga on Monday, November 20, to unlock avenues for reviving transborder trade between the state and the Chad Republic.
Transborder trade between the two entities has virtually ceased in the previous 13 years as a result of the actions of Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists who have kept a solid hold on the Chad Basin.
Zulum was also at Baga to assess areas of Lake Chad as part of his government’s aim to boost agricultural activity along the basin’s coastlines.
During his assessment, the governor stated that with agricultural operations rising up along the Lake Chad shoreline, the returnee villages will have sources of income.
“We are here to see how we can support large-scale farming, this town was ravaged by the insurgents and people were resettled back about last two or three years,” the governor said.
He stated: “Our first objective is to see how we can support the Army and the Navy to clear the waterways so that movement by boat from Baga to Chad can commence which will enhance transborder trade and agriculture.”
The governor was accompanied by the member representing Kukawa at the State Assembly, Kirta Maina Ma’aji, MD Chad Basin Development Authority, Engr Abba Garba, the Borno State Commissioner for Local Government and Emirate Affair, Sugun Mai Mele, that of Agriculture, Engr Bawu Musami, MD Borno State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Engr Mohammed Musa Aliyu and members of the Borno State Agricultural Transformation Committee.