The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has projected that the Information Communication Technology (ICT) and manufacturing sectors will be the primary drivers of the economy in 2023. In a statement titled “LCCI New Year Statement on the Economy 2023,” the chamber predicted growth in various sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, transport, telecommunications, and trade.
The telecommunications sub-sector, in particular, is expected to experience growth exceeding the 10.1 percent achieved in the third quarter of 2022. This growth is anticipated to be driven by the increasing deployment of Payment Service Banks by telecom companies, a rise in subscribers utilizing more services, and the expected innovations associated with the launch of 5G technology. The statement emphasized the need for the government to be more sensitive to the regulation of the ICT sector to foster growth and support private sector operations.
LCCI also highlighted several base factors that may continue to influence key economic indicators. These include rising inflation rates, tight monetary policies, an unstable currency, foreign exchange scarcity, debt burdens, currency management issues, food supply disruptions, exchange rate volatility, and election spending. As the year 2023 begins, the global economy faces a range of challenges, including persistently high inflation, aggressive monetary policy tightening, ongoing disruptions from the Russia-Ukraine war, an energy crisis, weak consumer demand, and political upheavals.
The chamber noted that its projected outlook remains cautious, indicating a hard landing for the Nigerian economy. In 2022, the economy recorded growth in the first three quarters, but this growth slowed from 3.54 percent in the second quarter to 2.25 percent in the third quarter. While growth is expected to be reported for the last quarter of 2022, the slowdown was attributed to a decline in aggregate demand amid inflation spikes, disruptions in commodity supply chains, high energy costs, and foreign exchange scarcity.
Furthermore, LCCI pointed out that many economies experienced multiple shocks throughout 2022, leading to projections of a potential recession or significant slowdown in growth for 2023. This outlook is driven by spiraling inflation, high energy costs, tightening monetary policies, and weakening consumer demand. Although global growth remains positive, it has slowed by approximately 50 percent between 2019 and 2022.
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