Taiwo Hassan 
The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) secretariat has disclosed that positive progress has been made in its efforts on the data collection drive on industries across the country. NACCIMA had, last year, disclosed that it would commence collection of data expected to provide empirical report on the number of insolvent firms in the country.
The Director-General of NACCIMA, Ambassador Ayo Olukanni, while speaking on the matter in an interview with New Telegraph, explained that the secretariat was not leaving any stone unturned in the data gathering exercise that is expected to help drive private sector activities in collaboration with member-chambers for advocacy, business development and trade promotion activities. According to him, the secretariat was mandated to intensify these activities to focus on promoting market access opportunities, as well as develop an empirical report on the state of insolvent industries and factories within each state of the federation.
The former diplomat explained that the private sector played a vital role in the economy in terms of revenue generation, strategic partnerships, job creation, investment facilitation and trade promotion, among others. Olukanni emphasised that the private sector accounted for over 80 per cent of total economic activities in the country, adding that it was, therefore, imperative to ensure an enabling operating environment for investors in the economy to thrive in their chosen businesses. The NACCIMA DG explained that it was regrettable that the fiscal and monetary policies of government that are expected to uplift many businesses in the country, at the same time, boost aggregate demand across economies, had been posing major risks to growth in the country’s real sector of the economy with profound trajectories hitting many industries and factories in the process.
While commenting on the data collection on insolvent industries across the nation, Olukanni said: “The Council noted the progress that had been made on the data collection drive on industries across the country through the NACCIMA secretariat. “The data gathering exercise is to help drive private sector activities, in collaboration with member-chambers, for advocacy, business development, and trade promotion activities. The secretariat was mandated to intensify these activities to focus on promoting market access opportunities, as well as, develop an empirical report on the state of insolvent industries and factories within each state of the federation.”
Speaking on the role of COVID- 19, he explained that “indeed, there is no gainsaying that the emergence of the induced COVID- 19 played a major role in the negative trajectories that affected the bottom lines of many businesses in the country. “This came inform of round of restrictions and lockdown across countries. In fact, many industrial firms could not have access to raw materials for production, including workers to produced immensely forcing them to embark on cost reflective approach to weather the stormy situation.” To him, the Nigerian economy for awhile has been confronted with several challenges including subdued business & commercial activities across various sectors (evidenced by PMI data trend), significant FX pressures (evidenced by widening premium between official and parallel market rates), revenue pressure from oil and non-oil sources, inflationary pressures, subdued purchasing power, weak employment levels, worsening internal security situation and weak investor confidence. All these listed challenges in one way or the other affected the country’s productive sector as lots of factories struggled to overcome the difficult situation.
