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Friday,
April 17, 2020 / 10:30 AM / by PwC / Header Image Credit: Devex
Businesses
in Nigeria have identified Liquidity and the safety of their staff among the
most pressing business needs they are concerned about as they grapple with the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These are some of the findings from a survey
conducted by PwC Nigeria.
The
survey findings were revealed during a recent webinar hosted by the firm, on
the economic implications and policy responses to COVID-19. The survey
had about 3000 respondents ranging from managers to CEOs and business owners.
Asked what their top business concerns were, 22.5% pointed at Liquidity, that
is the availability of immediate cash to pay bills especially following
disruption to business activities that has been experienced. This was followed
by Safety of staff at 15.4%, which is an impressive indication that Nigerian
businesses have a people focus and were not only concerned about their
profitability. The third significant business concern identified was
infrastructure for remote working (14.6%) further buttressing the need for access
to electricity and internet connectivity.
Providing
the results of the findings Taiwo Oyedele, Fiscal Policy Partner and West
Africa Tax leader at PwC noted that most businesses (78.4%) do not plan to lay
off staff as a result of the crisis. This presents a very positive picture.
However, decisions on staff retention are often top management decisions and it
could mean that a good percentage of respondents may not be privy to such plans
by their organisations. The other 21.6% admit that they will lay off various
percentages of staff as a consequence of the pandemic. Of this group
however, 55.3% do not think government intervention will influence their
decision on laying off staff with the rest indicating they would retain their
employees if government’s intervention were able to take care of varying
percentages of their staff wage bill. As part of its societal impact, PwC has
indicated that it would provide free business continuity support services to
small businesses employing between 5 to 50 employees who undertake to retain
all their staff during this period.
It
would appear that the much needed investments to stimulate growth and move the
needle on poverty will be greatly impacted as a result of the COVID-19 crisis
as 56.7% of respondents indicated that they will delay investment decisions
while 19.4% stated that they would invest less.
Majority
of the survey respondents think that governments interventions have either been
grossly inadequate (23.8%) or inadequate (43.9%) with 17.5% expressing indifference
to what government has done up to the date of the survey. Only 14.4% agree that
government’s intervention has met their expectations. This provides a clear
message to government both at the federal and state levels pointing either to
the need to do more, or to better communicate what is being done already to
help shape public perception. Among the top two areas that respondents believe
government’s intervention should be focused include tax relief (30%), provision
of loans at zero or low interest rate (29.3%), and cash transfer to the poor
(16.9%).
Overall,
the businesses surveyed agree that the private sector has a role to play in
supporting government’s fight against Covid-19 with 85.5% suggesting that they
are best suited to provide support in the area of provision of items, equipment
and facilities compared to only 10.7% who will consider donating cash to
government.
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