Industry stakeholders have expressed different opinions on the inflation figures and accompanying economic indicators as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
 
They argued that the figures do not match the current economic and business realities nationwide.
 
According to the NBS, the headline inflation rate eased to 22.97 per cent in May, relative to April’s headline inflation rate of 23.71 per cent. Food inflation in that same month was 21.14 per cent on a year-on-year basis from 22.28 per cent the month before, both signifying a slight ease in inflationary pressures.
 
Reacting, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, said the drop in inflation figures is extremely marginal, which he said, is a strong indication of elevated levels of inflation.
   
He explained: “In the last two months or so, we have seen slight moderation in prices of some products, on account of the import duty waiver that was granted on some food items. The impact of that on some food items like rice is evident. We have also seen a marginal drop in the prices of some pharmaceutical products which can be traced to the fiscal policy measures that were taken to remove taxes and levies on pharmaceutical raw materials.”
   
He, however, noted that generally, costs of goods and services are still extremely high, logistics costs are still high as well as interest rates.
 
“These are inflation drivers, and they are all still very high, so it simply means inflation is still high. Though there has been a slight reduction in the price of petrol, it is not significant enough to bring down production costs or the cost of power generation,” he added.
 
Considering these realities, he submitted that many businesses are still battling with elevated energy and logistics costs, exorbitant interest rates and so on. “Insecurity is not helping matters as far as food inflation is concerned. Sadly, insecurity is getting worse. There are pockets of reductions here and there but not a deflation per se,” he said.
   
Touching on current geo-political and local incidences, he said if the crisis is not de-escalated, energy prices are expected to rise while local insurgency will worsen the food crisis and increase the cost of raw materials for industries.
 
On his part, the national president of the Association of Small Business Owners in Nigeria (ASBON), Dr. Femi Egbesola, said inflation easing is relative and limited to particular sectors.

“It is mostly the oil and gas sector because of Dangote refinery’s local production. Also, the rainy season is helping with the availability of some food items. However, it does not cut across the board because the real sector is still struggling to get affordable raw materials as prices keep soaring daily.
   
“Also, manufacturers have increased prices as much as they possibly can and have reached the utmost elastic point of no return for consumers, such that they cannot increase prices again and are absorbing some of these higher costs at the detriment of their business. This is why we see many businesses failing. 
 
“Look around, banks are recording high debt profiles because many manufacturers and industries cannot make enough to pay up their debts to the banks. As a result, these industries are downsizing and folding up, to the extent that we have lost over two million businesses in the last two years due to the harsh operating environment and economic realities,” he stated.
 
Adding that while there might be a tiny drop in inflation, he said the government needs to do more as deflation does not need an announcement saying such an impact would be felt by businesses and Nigerians.

“We are not feeling it, prices of goods and commodities are still through the roof, and we want the government to step in with more interventions, ease of doing business and stable policies that will truly bring down inflation and make goods affordable and keep industries in business. Until these happen, the figures from NBS would be a mismatch to the reality on the street,” he noted.
   
Former chairperson of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Apapa branch and Executive Director, Universal Luggage Industries Limited, Frank Ike Onyebu, wondered where the NBS was getting its figures from.
 
He argued that the input from the real sector was not obtained before arriving at the figures presented.

He further argued that if NBS contacted manufacturers and players in the agro-allied industry, it would confirm that inflation was increasing, not decreasing.
 
Noting that every single economic indicator keeps skyrocketing, he said transport, energy and raw materials costs remain elevated, saying the reality is different from what was presented by the NBS.

“Call the NBS staff and ask them where they are buying food or goods cheaper. I have no idea where they are getting their figures from and I know they want to celebrate what doesn’t exist, but we must see what they are claiming. If there is truly a drop, we will see and feel it.
   
“I am in touch with other manufacturers and all of us are saying the same thing- production costs keep climbing up every day. Raw materials, energy, transportation, labour and so on are all becoming unbearable. Despite the fact most manufacturers have met up with the minimum wage, we have realised it is nothing, because paying our workers that wage is not enough for them to survive on. After removing transportation costs, workers are left with almost nothing and we have had to increase far above the minimum wage. Besides this, all aspects of production have increased by over 1000 per cent in the last two years,” he said.

Lamenting that transporting a container from Apapa wharf to Amuwo-Odofin Industrial estate now costs between 1-1.5 million naira from less than N400,000 two years ago, he said costs are going up rather than coming down.

He added: “It is extremely sad the government does not care about our survival. Customs and all other agencies are only interested in exceeding their target to our detriment. All these are passed to the cost of items and consumers indirectly pay these costs.”
 
He noted that despite rebasing inflation figures, the truth is clear for all to see, saying, “We need to stop deceiving ourselves. Claiming it has dropped on paper will not make inflation drop; what will make it drop is deliberate policies targeted at bringing down costs and a business-friendly environment. All the proclamations in the world will not make it drop as the reality will be waiting for us in the markets.”