We are expecting a tough time in the year 2023 — Afrinvest
Afrinvest West Africa Plc, has stated that they are expecting a tough 2023.
The company made this known at the 2022 edition of the Afrinvest Nigerian banking sector report, which was titled “Grace for impact.”
The report stated that “the landscape for Nigerian banks. What’s the environment they operated in in 2021? Looked at, the performance on several metrics and ultimately came to conclusion that regardless of whatever choices are made, whether politically the economy for instance, there is still going to be tough times ahead.
“And, of course, this is based on two things. As we all know, the economy doesn’t seem to be that straight, we are struggling with all sorts of issues, from low revenues, to runaway effects in exchange rate, the government that is struggling for funding, debt challenges in terms of how much of our revenues are going into servicing debt and all of that.
“There are certain prescriptions that a lot of us have made regarding what steps need to be taken to try and get the country back on the right foot again including doing away with petrol subsidies or perhaps power sectors subsidies or even effect subsidies each of which will have its own very tough impact on the economy.
“So if we do go ahead to make these tough choices, it means that things will probably get worse before they actually begin to then get better. So we are saying regardless of whatever happens people should just brace themselves for a tough 2023. And that’s why the report was titled Grace for Impact.”
The report also stated that the economy will adjust.
“The economy will adjust. Because remember, a lot of what we are subsidizing isn’t just consumption within the country. Because if you asked anybody if you ask the CPN or asked DMO or ask Ministry of Finance or ask the law ministry or ask the DPR, everyone has a different figure for how much petrol report. Part of the impact will also be that prices shouldn’t also be uniform across the nation, because clearly the closer you are to source the cheaper ecologically.
“Now, what are some of the things we can do to ameliorate the negative impact? That’s where we then see, you know, a government that decides to take such tough decisions has to think about creative ways to smoothen the impact. A lot of the food that is moved across the country from the north, it turns out we don’t use an articulated trucks, trailers as we call them, which are typically diesel powered.
“Diesel is quite regulated as we all know, and the prices have moved quite aggressively in 2022. For anyone using diesel generator once upon a time this year, we have made 270 Naira per litre of diesel but today 850 Naira per litre that has impacted everybody and what happened is that businesses have to adjust to the increase in cost.
“We have made some investments in the solar panels on batteries in places, so at least you can have some supply of time for additional hours. So that way, you can see that as a business you are adjusting to what is an increase in your cost in order to adapt. So that’s what will happen as well for most people who will then have to start buying a generator,” the report stated.
