Economics of Smuggling

A news story on crossing from Benin to Nigeria, through the Seme border:

“At every half kilometre, you encounter checkpoints manned by all sorts of agencies. This is a real problem to the sub-region,” he said. “On a bad day, from the Seme border down to Lagos, you meet over 70 checkpoints and they all ask the same thing, ‘what do you have for us’. They are all unlawful.

Although the report mentions the list of prohibited items, it does not say that the real reason that the border is that policed is because of that list itself. I have written somewhere else that the Nigerian state should consider other measures apart from outright prohibition. As long as the list of prohibited items is long, that border, as well as the road that runs from the border to Lagos, is going to remain as policed – either legally or illegally – as it is at the current moment.

I spent most of last year travelling the road.