Business owners are expressing concern that the August 1 protest might significantly impact productivity, potentially resulting in an estimated N400bn loss to the economy.
Industry stakeholders are particularly apprehensive about the possible repercussions of citizen demonstrations on lives, property, and their business holdings.
According to The PUNCH, the National Vice President of the Nigerian Association of Small-Scale Industrialists, Segun Kuti-George, highlighted the enduring fear of arson stemming from the EndSARS protests, which continues to haunt Nigerian business owners whose factories were almost set ablaze.
“Our factories were nearly torched and we would have been without businesses,” Kuti-George told The PUNCH, recounting the shared experiences of business owners during the EndSARS protest.
Dubbed the Hunger Protest, the demonstrations are slated for August 1, 2024, with most of the organizing taking place on social media platforms, particularly X.
Alongside the Nigerian political class, which has appealed for calm, and security agencies, which have warned against violence, business stakeholders have also emphasized their desire for peaceful demonstrations.
Kuti-George noted that more Nigerians are likely to limit their movements on the day of the planned protests, resulting in decreased foot traffic and a slower business day.
“People will want to be cautious. They will be reluctant to come out on that day,” Kuti-George remarked, predicting that some employers may instruct their staff to work from home.
A development economist, Rotimi Oyelere, pointed out that protests of a nationwide scale can lead to a loss of output and income as workers are forced to stop working.
“There will be a micro impact in immediate income loss for households and businesses, then a macro impact that will affect general output on a national scale. It could get out of control and lead to indirect loss if there is a need to restore any destroyed property,” he added.
Oyelere recommended more transparency between the people and the state, noting that the erosion of trust has contributed to the growing social unrest in the country.
An earlier analysis from the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise warned that the proposed nationwide protests pose “grave dangers for an economy that is already in a very fragile state”.
In a statement, the CPPE estimated that if the protests are not properly managed, they could impact earnings and lead to an estimated daily loss of N400bn.
The Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, suggested that protesters consider that over 90 percent of employed Nigerians are in the informal sector.
“Employees in this space (informal sector) depend on daily income, and any disruption to their economic activities beyond 24 hours could snowball into major social unrest. This underlines the country’s vulnerability to prolonged protests,” Yusuf noted.
He recommended, among other things, that the duration of the protests be limited to a single day, as “experience has shown that the chances of protests degenerating into chaos and anarchy increase with the duration of the protests,” Yusuf declared.
