THE Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Monday announced that stakeholders’ confimdence in the nation’s Tourism, Financial and Professional Service sectors recorded dwindling fortunes in the first 68 days of 2015.
LCCI in its report made avaiable to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said that stakeholders’ confidence in the sectors which included agriculture and manufacturing dipped to 22.3 per cent from 30 per cent in the last quarter of 2014.
The report termed “the Business Confidence Index (BCI),” a quarterly projection on the state of the economy, measures the degree of positivism of business leaders and investors.
According to LCCI, the report engaged 180 top business executives from 162 companies nationwide.
The report stated that players in the professional sector lamented the influx and rising patronage of offshore consultants, and the delay in the approval of the 2015 budget.
On the confidence level in the financial services sector, business leaders said that in the period under review there were economic fluctuations, capital flights and uncertainties due to the forthcoming general elections.
The chamber also identified recent downgrade of ratings by international rating agencies, policy uncertainty and exchange rate volatility as the causes of the poor confidence by stakeholders.
It also quotes tourism operators as saying that the general elections uncertinties impacted negatively on the sector following sharp decline in the number of events and conferences slated in the period under review.
The building and construction industry players, it said, attributed election spending, delayed payment of contractors as the major issues that affected business and investment in the sector.
LCCI report also attributed the low confidence in the building and construction industry to weaker demand for real estate and increasing security challenges in the country. (NAN)
