Abstract

In pursuant of their livelihood, traders, and transporters often face non-tariff payments while moving their agricultural and non-agricultural goods to and from markets and other points of sale. These incidents incrementally and gradually hike the cost of doing business in Nigeria and, hinder food surpluses in rural areas from getting to urban areas resulting into rural poverty. The sources, depth and extent of the obstacles faced by the traders were investigated in this study. Content analysis of TRIMS website for a six-month period was used for this study. The results showed that 60.7% of male and 39.3% of female encountered incidents of non-tariff barriers. It also revealed that 67.8% of the report was on the Nigerian Police, 12.4% on Road Safety Corps, 3.0% on Customs, 8.2% on Local Government Authority and 8.6% on other agencies (Immigration, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and Nigeria Army). Within the period, a total sum of N973, 047.00 was reported as non-tariff payments. The results further showed that 57.2% of the respondents recorded less than 30 minutes of time lost, 31.2% recorded up to one hour of time lost and 11.6% recorded more than one hour of time lost. The test of hypothesis indicated a strong positive association between time lost (29.8?41.0) and nontariff payments (40,543.6?66,661.7). In order to achieve economic growth, the anti-grafts agencies in the study area should be strengthened to promptly apprehend officers responsible in any case reported to the website so as to serve as deterrent to other corrupt officers.

PDF