Why liquidity, staff safety tops priority of business owners amidst COVID-19-PwC

Worried by the ravaging Coronavirus pandemic, business owners in Nigeria singled out problems of liquidity and the safety of employees’ jobs as priority business needs they are concerned about as the world battles to fight the pandemic.

Their concerns formed part of the findings of a survey conducted by Price Water Coopers (PwC) Nigeria on the economic implications of the pandemic for Nigeria and policy responses by the governments.

Major findings of the survey, which had about 3,000 respondents ranging from managers to CEOs and business owners, were disclosed during a Webinar hosted by the firm, on the economic implications and policy responses to COVID-19.

According to the firm, the respondents were asked what their top business concerns were and 22.5 per cent identified liquidity, that is, the availability of immediate cash to pay bills, especially the following disruption to business activities that has been experienced, as one of their major concerns.

Subsequently, 15.4 per cent of the respondents, expressed concern about the safety of the jobs of their staff, indicating that Nigerian businesses have a people-focused business philosophy and are not only concerned about their profitability.

Also, business concern identified by the business owners was infrastructure for remote working. 14.6% of the respondents expressed the concern, thereby buttressing the need for access to electricity and internet connectivity.

Providing the results of the survey findings, Taiwo Oyedele, Fiscal Policy Partner and West Africa Tax Leader at PwC, disclosed that most businesses (78.4%) did 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,” he said.

The survey also showed that the other 21.6 per cent admitted that they will lay off various percentages of staff as a consequence of the pandemic. Of this group, however, 55.3% 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.

As part of its societal impact, PwC has indicated that it would provide free business continuity support services to small businesses employing between 5 and 50 employees who undertake to retain all their staff during this period.

It would appear that the much-needed investments to stimulate growth and reduce the nation’s poverty level will be greatly impacted as a result of the COVID-19 crisis as 56.7 per cent of respondents indicated that they will delay investment decisions while 19.4 per cent stated that they would invest less.

Majority of the survey respondents think that governments interventions have either been grossly inadequate (23.8%) or inadequate (43.9%) with 17.5 per cent expressing indifference to what government has done up to the date of the survey. Only 14.4 per cent agree that the government’s intervention has met their expectations.

Oyedele said: “This provides a clear message to the government both at the federal and state levels pointing either to the need to do more, or to better communicate what is being done already to help shape public perception.”

Among the top two areas that respondents believe government’s intervention should be focused on include tax relief (30%), provision of loans at zero or low-interest rate (29.3%), and cash transfer to the poor (16.9%).

Overall, the businesses surveyed agreed that the private sector had a role to play in supporting government’s fight against COVID-19 with 85.5 per cent suggesting that they are best suited to provide support in the area of provision of items, equipment and facilities compared to only 10.7 per cent who will consider donating cash to the government.