Businesses losing N500m weekly to fuel scarcity – Chamber

The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said business ventures in the Federal Capital Territory lose about N500m revenue weekly due to the current fuel scarcity.

President of the Chamber, Mr Tony Ejikonye, who stated this on Wednesday in Abuja, said the situation had also affected employees’ productivity.

He said, “The effect on businesses in the Federal Capital Territory is huge and varied; it has impaired employees productivity, shrunk operations, increased cost and engendered staff layoffs.”

Ejikonye said the long time spent on queues at the filling stations and on getting public means of transport to places of work meant that workers expend their energy in a wrong direction.

He added, “As a result of poor power supply and scarcity of petroleum products, following which many have had to pay above the official pump price, operational cost have skyrocketed beyond projections following the associated increase in transport cost.

“These costs are being passed on to consumers and where they are unable to absorb or resist such increases, business has had to scale down activities or reduce staff strength to accommodate the said cost.

“Social cohesion and security have not been spared either as many small scale entrepreneurs and artisans, who depend largely on thrift contributions, have been unable to keep up with their daily contributions.

“This has severe consequences for saving business finances, not only for them, but also for the micro financiers and their bigger regular commercial banks.”

He therefore appealed to the Federal Government to urgently address the fuel scarcity to ensure a conducive operating environment for business to thrive.