Nigeria business have shown more optimism in growth of their operations more than expected with industry, agriculture and services operators projecting expansion despite economic setbacks.
But confidence level in the manufacturing sector has remained low amidst effort by the federal government to diversify the economy.
Businesses are projecting bigger growth with overall business outlook of 31.7 per cent in March, 39 per cent in April, 45.1 per cent in June and 48.3 per cent in September, 2025.
“The positive overall confidence index (CI) shows that respondent firms are optimistic about the overall macroeconomy, which may be attributed to their positive outlook on Exchange rate,” the Central Bank of Nigeria said in the March 2025 Business Expectation Survey (BES) seen by THE WHISTLER.
When it comes to confidence by sector, optimism in marketing and manufacturing activities were the least 14.6 per cent respectively.
Unlike manufacturing sector, confidence in construction activities was highest with 36.4 per cent confidence level, mining and quarrying was 21.7 per cent, non-market services was 20.2 per cent and agriculture was 17 per cent.
An analysis of the report showed that manufacturing had the second lowest prospect for employment and second lowest prospect for expansion in April, 2025 with 14.8 and 52 points respectively.
The construction sector had the highest prospect for employment with 29.1 per centage points while agriculture sector had the highest prospect for expansion in April 2025 with 73.2 per centage points.
However, the firms identified seven business constraints to their activities during the period and months ending June 2025.
The top constraints they identified were high interest rate which accounts for worries of 75.3 per cent of respondents, insufficient power supply which also accounts for concerns of 738 per cent of respondents.
High taxes were the third in the list which accounted for the concerns of 73.3 per cent of respondents while insecurity accounted for the panic of 73.2 per cent of respondents.
Financial problems and high charges accounted for 68.3 per cent and 67.6 per cent of the problems of the businesses.
Experts suggest that fears of underperformance are driving the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to consistently raise concerns about an unfavourable operating environment, citing high interest rates, power costs, and other challenges.
“The continuous hikes in MPR have tightened financial conditions for the productive sector, with the average maximum lending rate charged by commercial banks on manufacturers’ finances rising to 35 per cent in Q2 2024 from 28.6 per cent in Q1 2024.
“This has not only increased the cost of goods but has also further compounded the inflationary problem and threatened employment in the sector,” MAN had said in a publication titled, ‘MAN Position on the Incessant Increase in Interest Rate.’
Manufacturers Decry High Interest, Insecurity, Other Constraints To Businesses is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
Source: The Whistler
