Tag Archives: Bad economy

Efritin shuts Nigeria office, blames bad economy.

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Efritin (pronounced ‘Everything’) has stopped further investments in Nigeria and has wound down operations, just 16 months after its official launch.
Investigation showed that high cost of data and operational demands forced the e-classified advert player to close shop.

The company’s staff are already vacating the head office located in Ikeja while office properties are being auctioned.In a Skype call with Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, Nils Hammar, chief executive officer, Saltside Technologies and owners of Efritin, confirmed the decision to close down its Nigerian office, blaming harsh economic conditions in the country as the primary factor.

Hammar said that high cost of data is slowing down investments, disclosing their fears that current economic indices (recession) in the country may remain the same up to last quarter of 2017.

The operators have since been carpeted by the Senate, which stopped the plan of increasing a data plan of N1,000 for 1.5 gigabytes to cost N3,000 at N1,000 per 500 megabytes.

“We are reducing our investment in Nigeria. That effectively means we are reducing our staff; everybody has to go. But in terms of using the site, it will continue as before. By investment we mean the investment we made from the launch, it will be reduced,” Hammar said.

“Like I said earlier, data cost is too high and limits the growth potential of the market. if you look at the size of Nigeria and the online activities, there is a big discrepancies. Before e-commerce and classified ad sites will start recouping return in investments (RoI) there has to be drastic reduction in cost of data,” the Saltside Technologies boss said.

Efritin is alleged to be involved in 10 court cases in Nigeria that would cost the company up to N20million in fees among other things, according to a report by TechMoron, causing the central CEO to finally make the decision to close the company.

However, Hammar agreed there are court cases, but denied that the legal tussles were part of the decisions to step out of Nigeria.He said, “I can’t comment on specific legal cases involving Efritin operations in Nigeria, especially, on whether there are true or not. But I can tell you that has nothing to do with our decision to leave Nigeria. It has zero impact on the decision. This decision is something we deliberated on for a very long time; tried different approaches to see if we can find a better path forward considering the economic challenges- the data cost”.

I Agree With Those Who Say The Economy Is Bad, Soyinka Tells Buhari

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Apparently worried by the continuous decline in the nation’s economy, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, yesterday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to convene an emergency economic conference for experts to brainstorm on the way forward and future of the economy.

 

The Nobel laureate made the call when he paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja. According to Soyinka, the conference became necessary to enable experts diagnose the problems currently facing the country and make necessary recommendations for government to get the economy out of the woods.

 

He said: “I agree with those who say the economy is bad. It is obvious and it is so bad. I think the Presidency should call an emergency economic conference where experts will be enlightened. “We really need an emergency economic conference, bringing experts together to march the nation forward. I think the economy is not encouraging. Quite frankly, I think most economists will agree with this.”

Don’t wait to see a bonanza economy While urging Nigerians to be patient with the present administration, the Nobel laureate urged them not to expect an end to the present hardship as it would linger for a long time.

 

“Don’t wait to see a bonanza economy in the next few months to a year. Recovery is going to take time. But at the same time, we have to rely on the objective analysis of experts to tell the government when it gets bad, which might compound the problem and ultimately left the people as victims.

 

“At the beginning, this cabinet had no Culture but had Information ministry. We had to scream, before the Ministry of Culture later came,” Soyinka said.

 

Cautions on human rights abuse

Asked to rate the performance of Buhari’s administration, he said though it might be too early to assess the administration’s performance, it would be right for the government to recognise the provisions of the law and constitution of the land to avoid violation of the fundamental human rights of people.

 

He said: “My attitude to the performance of the present administration is that the rule of the law should be followed. I belong to any government which is very patient to getting results. I have a very clear idea of governance tempo. “If that goal is attained by constitutional means, if nothing else, it would have moved this nation forward. “The tempo of motion, for me is very reasonable.

 

For me, I would say more than reasonable. But on the human right side, we have to watch very carefully to see if that can be achieved without forfeiting the fundamental human rights of people, which form the basis we derive from citizenship. “I will say, while the human right is respected, governance should move on, which I believe most Nigerians approve.

 

“What is going on now is an exposure of open robbery in their faces, while the government should damn the consequences of its action, with ethical rigour without minding whose ox is gored. “Government, for me, is a very complicated matter and there is a lot of debris to be cleared. Maybe, we need to be a little bit more patient to see what the administration will do.”

 

 

Credit : Vanguard