Cost of doing business in Nigeria to rise in 2020 – Report

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has projected a high cost of doing business in 2020.

Muda Yusuf, the LCCI Director-General, made the projection in the LCCI 2019 Economic Review and Outlook For 2020 made available to journalists on Thursday in Lagos.

He attributed the projected high cost to poor infrastructure, multiplicity of levies, excessive regulations, among others.

Mr Yusuf said that while the nation may have recorded improvement on the Ease of Doing Business Ranking due to some recent policy measures, realities on ground would continue to differ if the highlighted challenges were not properly addressed.

He said the performance of the trade sector in 2020 would be shaped by the direction of government policies.

Mr Yusuf anticipated that the manufacturing sector would continue to benefit from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s aggressive credit push.

He, however, predicted that competition between foreign and local producers would fade on prolonged closure of land borders.

The director general said that headline inflation was expected to trend higher in 2020.

He said this would be driven by implementation of new minimum wage and continued closure of the land border.

Mr Yusuf said that higher Value Added Tax rate of 7.5 per cent and the early disbursement of funds for budget implementation following the return of the budget cycle would also be contributory factors.

– Premium Times