- The Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, has said that economic activities in the country in the first half of the year 2015, has remained low.
- In an interview with newsmen, Yusuf said the first half of the year was characterised by a number of factors ranging from the political transition and election that affected businesses in various ways.
- He pointed out that there is the fiscal crisis rocking many of the states of the federation following the decline in revenue which also affected the economy in a number of ways as many state governments cannot pay salary of workers.
- According to him, there was the energy crisis leading to fuel queues, high cost of fuel, prolonged power failure, among others.
“There was also the shock arising from the development in the foreign exchange market. These are some of the critical factors that impacted on business during the first half of the year. The election and the preparation of the election considerably slowed down the tempo of economic activities in the first half of the year,” Yusuf said.
- He pointed out that the fiscal policy reflecting in the sharp decline of government revenue affected the capacity of government and its agencies to meet their obligation to businesses, employees and citizens, saying many state governments could not meet their obligations to contractors, most of which are operators in the private sector. Also, he added that the economy has continued to be negatively affected by the fallout of the 2014 crude oil price crisis.
- Source: Leadership
