Many Nigerian businesses are seeking tax relief and low-interest or zero-interest loans from the government to help them cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Out of the 3,000 Chief Executive Officers and business owners surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 30 per cent said government’s interventions should be focused on include tax relief; 29 per cent clamoured for provision of loans at zero or low interest rate.
The report also indicated that 16.9 per cent believed that conditional cash transfer to the poor was crucial at this time.
Findings of the study on the economic implications and policy responses to COVID-19 showed that 22.5 per cent of the CEOs said the availability of funds to pay immediate bills was their major business concern during this period.
The PwC, in a statement issued after a webinar of the study, said findings of the survey indicated that 15.4 per cent business leaders were also concerned about the safety of their workers as coronavirus continues to spread in the country.
“Among the top two areas that respondents believe government’s interventions should be focused on include tax relief (30 per cent), provision of loans at zero or low interest rate (29.3 per cent), and cash transfer to the poor (16.9 per cent),” the report stated.
According to the report, 14. 6 per cent of the CEOs also worry about infrastructure for remote working as access to electricity and Internet connectivity is limited.
“Businesses in Nigeria have identified liquidity and the safety of their staff among the most pressing business needs they are concerned about as they grapple with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report stated.
Providing the results of the findings, Fiscal Policy Partner and West Africa Tax leader at the PwC, Taiwo Oyedele, noted that most businesses (78.4 per cent) did not plan to lay off staff as a result of the crisis.
According to him, 21.6 per cent of the business owners said they would lay off various percentages of members of staff as a consequence of the pandemic
“This presents a very positive picture. However, decisions on staff retention are often top management decisions and it could mean that a good percentage of respondents may not be privy to such plans by their organisations,” he added.
Among the business leaders who wanted to lay off workers, the PwC discovered that 55.3 per cent of them did not think government’s interventions would influence their decision on laying off members of staff.
But others said they would retain their employees if government’s interventions were able to take care of varying percentages of their staff wage bill.
Oyedele pointed out that investments required to stimulate economic growth and address on poverty would be greatly impacted as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
This, according to him, is because 56.7 per cent of respondents indicated that they would delay investment decisions while 19.4 per cent stated that they would invest less.
“Majority of the survey respondents think that government’s interventions have either been grossly inadequate (23.8 per cent) or inadequate (43.9 per cent) with 17.5 per cent expressing indifference to what government has done up to the date of the survey. Only 14.4 per cent agree that government’s interventions have met their expectations,” the report stated.
The PwC said these findings indicated that the government at the federal and state levels needed to do more or to better communicate what was being done already to help shape public perception.
