New Telegraph

NACCIMA rues adverse economic woes on Nigerian businesses

The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) has lamented that the country’s alarming unemployment crisis has been posing risks to the country’s business environment. National President of the group, IDE John Udeagbala, made this known to journalists in Lagos recently. Udeagbala explained that unemployment rate, as at the second quarter of 2020, reportedly stood at 33.3 per cent, signifying that 22 million people were unemployed in a labour force estimated at 80 million people. He said: “Our unemployment crisis with its security implications deserve urgent attention and a definitive resolution. “Our association has been working with the government and other private sector operators and stakeholders to provide jobs in order to reduce unemployment.

“We, therefore, ask government to liberalise the business environment to enable our members do more.” While speaking on the state of Nigerian economy and national output, the NACCIMA national president said that the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Nigerian economy gradually slowing down could be detrimental to economic recovery this year. “According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the Nigerian economy slowed down slightly from a 5.01 per cent per cent growth in the second quarter of 2021 to 4.03 per cent growth in the third quarter.

“While this is somewhat reflective of the global economic outlook, which expects that economic recovery will be slow amid continued evolution of COVID-19 variants, diminished policy support and lingering supply bottlenecks, it is the position of our association that chances of accelerated recovery in Nigeria will be hindered by continuous in-stitutional and infrastructural deficiencies that continue to plague the Nigerian economy,” Udeagbala stated.

Speaking on the country’s foreign trade and exchange rate, the renowned industrialist explained that the persistence in Nigeria’s negative terms of trade showing huge deficits have been rare occurrences in the history of the country’s terms of trade. According to him, foreign trade, data as at the end of the third quarter of 2021 shows a persistence in Nigeria’s negative terms of trade which stood at N8.8 trillion; this is reflective of total exports worth N13.1 trillion against N21.9 trillion in total imports. Other negative terms of trade have been N2.2 trillion in 2015; N895 billion in 2016, N637 billion in 2019; and N8.1 trillion in 2020. He, therefore, said: “We demand something drastic is done to reverse this trend, and as we struggle to come to grips with this new reality, the private sector acknowledges the increased pressure on government to generate foreign exchange and shore up foreign reserves.

“It is noteworthy that one of government policies to achieve this has been through the management of foreign exchange policies.” On the country’s currency devaluation, the NACCIMA helmsman said: “We have witnessed the devaluation of naira against dollar, an exchange rate that is officially N415 to 1USD, but about N585 to the dollar in the unofficial market. “This has come with consequences of increased costs of production of raw materials and consumables. “As the voice of Nigerian businesses, we counsel government to look to non-traditional sources of foreign exchange such as foreign direct investment and remittances from the Nigerian diaspora. “Also, the rise of remote work and the huge demand for technology products have witnessed explosive growth in Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, therefore, we want government to support this sector with the right policy environment, as it has the potential to be one of the highest sources of foreign exchange for the country,” he said.

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