Cross-border exchanges between Benin and its neighbour Nigeria are undermined by some irregularities. Stepped up to the plate on Monday, June 21, 2021, through the Nigerian site Shipsandports, the vice-president of the Nigerian Institute of Navigation (NIS), Segun Elufioye-Johnson denounced acts of fraud taking place on the Sèmè-Lagos border road.

At the heart of this malfeasance are the police, customs, the joint military border patrol and immigration officials. The NIS chief said extortion on the busy trade route has intensified due to the proliferation of several security agencies on the road. According to him, in other West African countries, there is only one checkpoint at their borders unlike what is happening in Nigeria. Elufioye-Johnson said there were up to 30 checkpoints set up by Nigerian security agencies from the Sèmè border to Okokomaiko in Lagos.

"Police, customs, immigration, civil defense, military officials and even ''locals'' and several others who have nothing to do on the roads ransom users. This only happens in the southwest, as the roads leading to the border in other parts of the country don't have as many checkpoints ," elufioye-Johnson said. For example, he points out, the road to the Ikom border has only one checkpoint. Even at the busy border of Jibya in Katsina State, there are no such barriers and extortion as is seen in the southwest.