Election Postponement: Nigeria Has Lost $1.5bn – Lagos Chambers Of Commerce

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Election Postponement: Nigeria Has Lost $1.5bn – Lagos Chambers Of Commerce

Muda Yusuf, Director General of the Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said that Nigeria would lose about $1.5 billion owing to the postponement of the general elections.

In a telephone interview with INDEPENDENT, Yusuf asserted that the country would loss nothing less than the said amount because of the shutdown of the economy for a day.

“We shutdown the economy for a whole day, that means the different output of the economy for a whole day is practically gone. We are talking about within the range of $1.5billion. Now even before today because of the election, the tempo of the economy activities has gone down,” he said.

The DG also noted that Friday for instance was more like an half day for many businesses.

“Yesterday for instance was more like an half day for many businesses, quite a lot of people have travelled from different parts to another location so that they can vote, that also came at a very huge cost to them.
“There is also the cost that has been expended by INEC; huge amount of money to mobilize people to different locations to support logistics, to get ad-hoc staff to move to different locations, these are huge national resources that have been committed; all that has been practically put to waste.

“So really, the cost has been horrendous on the economy and the sacrifices on the individuals and business has also been enormous,” he added.