For the average Nigerian, this year’s Christmas is one that will never be forgotten in a hurry for reasons which are too numerous to mention. No thanks to the biting economic crunch, not many Nigerians will be able to savour the excitements and merriments that are long accustomed with the festivities.
With many people out of jobs and companies shutting down and unable to pay backlog of salary arrears both at the public and private sectors, Christmas this year is rather bleak and leaves nothing to cheer about.
The devil is in the details
December is regarded as that part of the year when festivities carry the day, against this background, NOIPolls Limited conducted a poll to explore the plans of Nigerians for the 2016 end of year festive season. This poll results release further trends current results with results of the first, second, third and fourth edition conducted in December 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
NOIPolls Limited is the No1 for country specific polling services in West Africa.
While a flurry of economic activities such as purchasing of travel tickets, food items, clothes etc. are ongoing; Nigerians are mindful of the impact on their finances due to probable rising costs and also as the economy is yet to improve. This is attested to by the majority of Nigerians (77 percent) who anticipate a general increase in the prices of goods and services during this festive season and 51 percent of this proportion who specified food as the item that would mostly increase, as revealed by the latest public opinion poll results released by NOIPolls Limited.
More findings revealed that most Nigerians (62 percent) will be staying at home to relax during the end of year festivities and residents from the North-East zone accounted for the largest proportion (77 percent) of Nigerians in this category. This could be attributed to the economic situation of Nigeria that has further worsened in the third quarter, coupled with the fact that the zone is yet to gain stability due to some pockets of insurgency activities. Therefore, citizens would rather cut down their expenditures and stay at home in order not to incur too much expenses while also trying to stay safe. Also, 20 percent reported that they will be travelling during the period and the South-East zone recorded the largest proportion (28 percent) of the respondents that gave this assertion.
In addition, the poll revealed that the current economic recession facing the country maybe an impediment to the level of satisfaction citizens would enjoy this festive season as most Nigerians (48 percent) pointed out that they will minimise their end of year spending while 35 percent complained that it will increase their end of year spending amongst other effects.
Therefore, the federal government needs to seek more realistic solutions to the economy, especially now that the 2017 Appropriation Bill has been submitted to the National Assembly with about 31 percent of the budget committed to capital expenditure.
These were the key findings from the end of year special poll conducted in the week of December 12th, 2016.
An evaluation of an anticipated general rise in prices during this festive season in comparison with the poll conducted in 2015 revealed that most Nigerians (77 percent) believe that there would be a general rise in prices this festive season. This reflects a 1-point increase and further buttresses the reports by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) about the inflation rate in the country which has hit 18.3 percent in October 2016.
On the contrary, 23 percent said they do not anticipate a general rise in the prices of items during this festive season and during the course of this survey, majority of the respondents in this category based their position on the fact that there is no money in circulation, therefore, buying power among Nigerians has drastically reduced which would in turn force the prices down or remain in the same point.
Subsequently, out of the proportion of Nigerians (77 percent) who admitted to a general rise in prices, (51 percent) reported that they anticipate a general rise in prices of food items and it corroborates a previous report that Naira fall has affected the prices of food commodities in the country.
Other items mentioned are clothes and transportation (22 percent each), fuel (4 percent) and electronics (91 percent).Trend analysis revealed a significant 9-point decrease in the number of Nigerians who anticipated a general rise in food items and a 7-points increase in the proportion of Nigerians who mentioned clothes when these current findings are compared with the poll results conducted in 2015.
In conclusion, this poll has revealed that most Nigerians (62 percent) will be staying at home to relax during the end of year festivities, whereas 20 percent reported that they will be travelling during the period. More findings shows that majority of Nigerians (77 percent) anticipate a general increase in the prices of goods and services in Nigeria during the festive season and 51 percent of this proportion specified food as the item that would mostly increase. As a result of this general increase in prices, 48 percent of Nigerians disclosed that they will minimize their end of year spending while 35 percent complained that it will increase their end of year spending amongst other effects. Finally, the survey also present some sort of harmony and love among the citizens as 23 percent wish peace and prosperity for their fellow citizens.
Survey methods
The opinion poll was conducted in the week of December 12th, 2016. It involved telephone interviews of a random nationwide sample. 1,000 randomly selected phone-owning Nigerians aged 18 years and above, representing the six geopolitical zones in the country, were interviewed. With a sample of this size, we can say with 95% confidence that the results obtained are statistically precise – within a range of plus or minus 3%.
The status report on the economy by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that this is the third consecutive quarter of 2016 in which the Nigerian economy experienced negative growth.
Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 2.24 percent in the third quarter of 2016, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), confirming that the economy is still in recession.
Soaring prices of food items
According to salespersons who spoke with The Nation in some parts of Lagos metropolis and environs, sales have been very poor this Christmas.
Gazing listlessly into space, Mr. Stanley Nnadi, a trader at Mandilas, Lagos, expressed disappointment that most of the few shoppers who thronged the market haggle endlessly and eventually walk away as they simply find the items too exorbitant to purchase.
“I can’t just seem to find anything to buy in this market. If I knew, I won’t have wasted my time coming here. All the prices have practically gone up 40 per cent! I came here just to buy a few things for myself and my son but I’m not finding things funny at all,” lamented the distraught mother who simply gave her name as Mrs. Adaobi Afam.
The rich also cry
Perhaps most tellingly is the fact that even large corporates and multinationals including banks, oil companies, telcos and other actors in the major commanding heights of the economy are also celebrating the festivities rather ‘miserably.’
One of the visible signs that all is not well at all this Christmas is the absence of the usual fabulous decorations that greets your sights the minute you step into most offices during this period. Random checks conducted by The Nation in some of these companies showed that the Christmas decor were scanty and used rather sparingly where they were used at all.
Checks at some of the corporate headquarters of some companies including banks within Lagos metropolis and environs and even outside the state revealed that most of these companies were marking the season on a very low-key.
A staff in one of the new generation banks who would not be named confided in The Nation that this year the bank drastically cut down its budget spend for PR and gifts because of recession.
“Our bank had a shoestring budget this year for festivities. Unlike before when we shop for hampers, this year it was not part of the plan at all. In fact, we barely managed to gift away some few 5kg bags of rice to some of our partners just to say thank you. That is the least we could do this year. Some companies couldn’t afford to give away anything even to their staff. It’s all due to the lingering recession. Let’s just hope for better luck next year.”
Strategies to woo customers
Expectedly most of the retail stores have had to introduce a number of measures to shore up sales due to the lull in business activities this yuletide.
Speaking with The Nation, John Goldsmith, Head of Marketing at SPAR said: “In as much as sales are yet to peak across our stores nationwide, we remain hopeful that are loyal shoppers will take advantage of our subsidised offers and stick with us.”
SPAR Nigeria, he stressed, “Is committed to the Nigerian project and in the spirit of festivity has come up with the Christmas Bonanza Sale where we have put together exciting bundle offers starting from N2,185 that will suit every household this Christmas. We want to appreciate our loyal customers for their support throughout the year and expect the same kind of gesture in the New Year.”
Speaking with an hotelier, Mr. John Enemona said most hotels are badly hit by the economic recession and have to introduce some innovative ways in order to remain afloat. Part of the measures being adopted by the hotels is drastic price reduction on rates and other charges.
This, he said, has become necessary in view of the biting economic crunch which is seriously taken its toll on the sector.
“We empathise with our customers a lot especially considering the sorry state of the economy generally and that is why we have introduced a lot of incentives for this period. Apart from the normal clearance sales which we do from time to time during which we sell products at rebates and heavy discounts we also unveiled the other measures at this period of time.”
