– LCCI Advises Labour to Negotiation with FG
Mr Muda Yusuf, the Director General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), says the country is losing about N82 billion daily to the ongoing strike.
The labour unions and civil liberty organisations started a national strike on Monday in protest against the removal of subsidy on petrol. The strike entered the third day on Wednesday.
Yusuf said in Lagos on Wednesday that he arrived at the figure based on the country’s national output.
“We have an estimated national output, which is a GDP of N30 trillion. If you estimate the daily output, you are looking at N82 billion,” he said.
According to him, the informal sector is also be losing a lot as operators in the sector are sustained by daily transactions.
“The informal sector, micro enterprises and some small businesses must be feeling big pains arising from the strike because they are driven by daily transactions.
“It is even worse now because they don’t have the opportunity to do any business,” he said.
Yusuf said that investors were also not left out because many of those who imported one thing or the other had vessels stuck at the ports.
“You cannot discharge your cargoes from the vessels without paying port charges.
“You cannot also remove your cargoes from the ports without paying for demurrage on the cargoes to the port authorities.
“And all these things are financed most often by borrowed funds, so interest cost is accruing on all these funds; yet there is no transaction, no movement.
“That again is another burden on businesses,” he said.
Yusuf said that employers would also have to pay employees, even when the employees were not on their duty posts.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has advised the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to dialogue with the Federal Government over the fuel subsidy removal, to avoid disorder.
Mr Muda Yusuf, LCCI Director-General, said on Wednesday in Lagos that dialogue had become necessary.
According to him, the organisers of the strike are gradually losing grounds to miscreants who are hijacking the protests.
“Miscreants have taken over the strike and this could bring total violence in the country.
“My advice is that both parties have to come back to the negotiation table.
“There has to be some shifting of ground on both sides because you cannot maintain your stand and negotiate at the same time,’’ he said.
Yusuf said that both parties must be ready to concede to one each other.
He said the Federal Government must be ready to take cognisance of some social and political considerations.
The director said that the labour too must recognise that the government did not have the resources to revert to N65 per litre.
“So from these two stand points, at least a middle ground can be achieved,’’ Yusuf said.