By Nkiruka Nnorom As the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on businesses and the general economy continues to rage, a new sur...
By Nkiruka Nnorom
As the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on businesses and the general economy continues to rage, a new survey by the PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PwC, has revealed that liquidity and staff retention are the top concerns for top business executives in Nigeria.
The survey findings were revealed during a webinar hosted by the firm, on the economic implications and policy responses to COVID-19.
The survey had about 3000 respondents ranging from managers to CEOs and business owners.
READ ALSO:FG extends closure of International Airports by two weeks
The survey findings indicated that 22.5 percent of the respondents pointed at liquidity, that is the availability of immediate cash to pay bills especially following disruption to business activities that has been experienced.
This was followed by safety of staff at 15.4 percent.
“This is an impressive indication that Nigerian businesses are people-focused and are not only concerned about their profitability,” the firm said.
The third significant business concern identified was infrastructure for remote working at 14.6 percent, which buttressed the need for access to electricity and internet connectivity, PwC said.
Commenting on the results of the findings, Taiwo Oyedele, Fiscal Policy Partner and West Africa Tax Leader at PwC noted that most businesses (78.4%) do not plan to lay off staff as a result of the crisis. This presents a very positive picture.
“However, decisions on staff retention are often top management decisions and it could mean that a good percentage of respondents may not be privy to such plans by their organisations.
“The other 21.6 percent admit that they will lay off various percentages of staff as a consequence of the pandemic. Of this group, however, 55.3 percent do not think government intervention will influence their decision on laying off staff with the rest indicating they would retain their employees if government’s intervention were able to take care of varying percentages of their staff wage bill.”
Other findings by the survey indicated that investments to stimulate growth and move the needle on poverty would be greatly impacted as a result of the COVID-19 crisis as 56.7 percent of respondents indicated that they will delay investment decisions while 19.4 percent stated that they would invest less.
Also, majority of the survey respondents think that governments interventions have either been grossly inadequate (23.8%) or inadequate (43.9%) with 17.5 percent expressing indifference to what government has done up to the date of the survey.
Only 14.4 percent agree that government’s intervention has met their expectations.
Among the top two areas that respondents believe government’s intervention should be focused include tax relief (30%), provision of loans at zero or low interest rate (29.3%), and cash transfer to the poor (16.9%).
The post COVID-19: Liquidity, workforce retention, top concerns for businesses — PwC survey appeared first on Vanguard News.
No comments