The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, will open an investigation to explore the impacts of Nigeria¢¥s border closure.

ECOWAS promotes economic integration of its member countries, and heads of the states agreed to form a committee that will look into the impact that the closure has had on Nigeria¢¥s neighbors.

Nigeria¢¥s plan was to limit imports and exports and to stop the smuggling of goods such as rice. However, surrounding countries rely on goods from Nigeria, and the border closure has affected their economies.

A spokesperson for Nigeria¢¥s president said that the committee will study the impacts and make a full report about them. There is no deadline for the report, but Nigerian officials said that it will be done as soon as possible.

Difficult words: promote (to support), integration (the process of combining more things into one thing successfully), smuggle (to move goods illegally into or out of a country).