NOI POLLS releases results of inaugural Business Confidence Survey
by admin, on 2008-08-03 08:22:08
Abuja, Nigeria – The poor condition of the countrys infrastructure is the number one concern of major business executives who were polled recently by NOI Polls.

…Top business executives are worried about infrastructure, but optimistic about the investment climate

Abuja, Nigeria – 30 July 2008 – The poor condition of the country’s infrastructure is the number one concern of major business executives who were polled recently by NOI Polls, an indigenous opinion research firm which is pioneering country-specific opinion polling in Nigeria. Corruption and shortage of skilled hands are also among the major worries which motivated the general assessment of the nation’s business environment as “unsupportive” by 93% of the 15 executives who participated in the survey.

But it is not all bad news. In spite of these concerns, most of the executives believe this is a good time to invest in Nigeria and over half of them are actually planning to hire new hands within the next six months.

The 15 executives interviewed were drawn from listed as well as privately owned companies representing banking, insurance, telecommunication, oil & gas, consulting, manufacturing, aviation, private equity, retail, and transport industries. The leading executives were also asked about to identify the top 3 impediments to doing business in Nigeria. A breakdown of the findings shows that 87% of the executives polled say lack of infrastructure as the top impediment to doing business in Nigeria, while corruption and lack of skilled manpower were identified by 53% as the major obstacles. Policy inconsistency and insecurity were identified by 47% and 40% respectively. Giving more detail, the executives identified five areas which “greatly hinder” their businesses as power (73%), security (67%), petrol/diesel (47%), roads (27%) and ports (20%).

Corruption remains a major issue: 40% of those polled said that they or their staff have been propositioned for bribes within the past six months. Shortage of skilled labor is another major constraint which the executives say their firms are facing as they work towards expanding their businesses but there is a silver lining: 60% of the respondents say capital is “very easy” to obtain.

Overall, there is an interesting difference between the projections these business executives are making for their firms and their immediate expectations for the country. They are generally optimistic about the short term future of their companies. For instance, 47% of CEOs expect an increase in the demand for their products and services in the next 6 months, 55% intend to increase their staff strength in the next 6 months and 80% believe the present is a good time to make new investments.
However they are not optimistic that there will be any improvement in the business environment soon. In fact, 67% of the respondents expect inflation to rise within the next three months even though 80% are quite pleased with the current exchange rate which has been relatively stable for some time.

The poll, part of the innovative Eagle 30 Business Confidence Survey recently initiated by NOI Polls, has the following objectives:

Mr. Ndubisi Anyanwu, CEO of NOI Polls, was confident that the poll will provide a useful platform for Nigeria’s top CEOs to express their views on the country’s business environment and investment climate. The poll is to be conducted semiannually.

The complete research findings are available here.