TRIBUNE
DESPITE recording a 3.19% growth (year-on-year) in real terms, in the second quarter of 2024, not a few Nigerians, especially economists, still hold the strong belief that the nation’s economic fortunes are in a dire strait. This position may not be farther from the truth.
A glimpse into Nigeria’s economic scorecard will no doubt leave any concerned Nigerian with some goose pimples.
In Q2 2024 GDP report, despite the economy recording its fifteen consecutive growth, such growth was primarily driven by both oil and non-oil sectors, which grew by 10.15% and 2.80%, respectively.
Ironically, two critical sectors: Agriculture and Manufacturing, regarded as the largest employers of labour, in the period under review, never experienced such tangible growths; a development, analysts see as a pointer to an ailing economy.
For instance, while agriculture recorded a minimal growth of 1.41% from 0.18%, in the period under review, growth in the manufacturing sector dipped from 1.49% to 1.28%.
Interestingly, while the big businesses are groaning under the heavy burdens of government reforms, with some looking for alternative and conducive environment to do their business, outside the shores of the country, the small and nano businesses are not spared either.
“The high and rising cost environment continues to shrink profitability and, in many cases, threaten the existence of many operators in this critical sector of the economy. More worrisome is the fact that the sector that should propel job creation, productivity, and economic growth is enmeshed with series of challenges that constantly limit its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” the President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Otunba Francis Meshioye, has said.
For the operators of such businesses, the ‘streets are not smiling’, the unending hike in the price of premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, has begun to take its toll on their businesses.
“But, unlike the big businesses and multinationals, our hands are in the air. We are at a crossroads, with neither the means nor the clout to relocate elsewhere,” said Makinde Adams, a Lagos-based fashion designer, whose hitherto huge clientele base has experienced massive erosion, due to trying economic times, of late.
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