At present north of the border (3)

'the border' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'at present north of' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'north' could be 'n' ('N' can be a synonym of 'north') and 'n' is found within the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is found within the answer.
A single letter 'o' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?