Chief executives are holding their business decisions as they await a successful transition of power come May 29, following the uncertainty of the outcome of many litigations before the courts over the recently concluded presidential election.
Blueprint investigation revealed that a lot of contracts and investments are held back, waiting for a peaceful transition.
Specifically, advert agencies are lukewarm about campaigns already concluded, but want assurance that there will be an atmosphere conducive enough for business plans to flow.
They mostly sued for a patriotic approach to the unfolding court cases in the interest of the entire country.
Fidel Okoro, a business in Lagos told Blueprint that, if the political actors have the interest of the country at heart, they will not do anything in the name of selfish interest to bring us to the current Sudan situation.
Ameachi ogongo told Blueprint that, the possible removal of the fuel subsidy or not is major factor that investors and other businesses are awaiting to enable them plan for.
According to him, the removal will mean adjusting their expenditure to accommodate more money put on the table, expecting a normalize supply of the product, while a stay put situation will equally simulate another approach.
Ameachi said, for instance, a removal is expected to lure labour unions to expected action, but will at the end stop subsidising the rich who have many cars.
Anekwe Justice told Blueprint that a lot of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are on hold as they also await the inauguration date.
According to Anekwe, funds are shy of uncertainties and would always go to where Conditions are stable.
Other reports say statistics from the Nigeria Customs Service show that the volume of imported cars declined in the first quarter of the year to a total of 51, 782 units of vehicles from 97,132 units of vehicles that were imported same period in 2022.
According to the shipping position, a publication of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), only about 21 ships were scheduled to discharge consignments including containerised goods, bulk cargo such as wheat, frozen fish, oil, sugar, and gas, among other industrial raw materials in the ports in Lagos between April 27 and May 4, 2023.
This is low, compared to when over 30 vessels visited the port within the same timeline.
“The first quarter of the year was very slow; there was a low volume of goods that were coming into the port. This was caused by the elections, the naira policy and the uncertainty in the economy. By my estimation, the volume of imports has dropped by 25 per cent,” said Tony Anakebe, a Lagos-based maritime expert.
He said there is a lull in business activities at the ports currently because the economic situation in the country is also affecting port business.
According to him, the situation has not improved even in the second quarter of the year because many importers are in a ‘sit and wait mood’, waiting for the inauguration of the new government to be able to make business decisions.
He said there is every probability that things would start to turn around after the inauguration of the new government because that would come with new fiscal policies that would determine the direction of the economy.
