Fuel Scarcity: Abuja Chamber of Commerce Puts Weekly Revenue Loss at N500m

The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and industry Limited, has said that businesses in the Federal capital Territory (FCT) loses about N500 million revenue weekly due to the current fuel crisis.

President of the Chamber, Mr. Tony Ejikonye, who disclosed this in Abuja said the lingering fuel scarcity had also affected employees’ productivity.

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

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

Ejikonye said owing to the scarcity of fuel and the deteriorating power supply especially in the Federal Capital Territory,  businesses are losing livelihood.

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 costs 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, businesses have had to scale down activities or reduce staff strength to accommodate the said costs.

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

“This had 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 problem to ensure a conducive operating environment for business to thrive.