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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Economy & Trade

Uber Exit Shows Tinubu Has Turned Nigeria into a Graveyard of Businesses, ADC Says

From ThisDay · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Nigeria’s African Democratic Congress criticized the Bola Tinubu administration after Uber left the country and several multinational companies closed or reduced operations.
  • The opposition party linked the business exits to high energy and transport costs following the removal of the petrol subsidy and the naira’s devaluation.
  • The ADC questioned the value of a reported 0.2 percentage-point GDP improvement as poverty, shrinking wages and food insecurity deepen, according to the party.

The African Democratic Congress says Nigeria has become a “graveyard of businesses” after ride-hailing company Uber left the country and several multinational firms shut down or scaled back their operations.

In a statement issued in Abuja, ADC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi described the departures as a vote of no confidence in President Bola Tinubu’s administration and its ability to manage the economy. The party said the developments revealed a widening gap between official claims of economic progress and the conditions facing businesses and ordinary Nigerians.

graveyard of businesses

· Bolaji AbdullahiThe ADC publicity secretary described Nigeria’s business environment after Uber’s departure and other corporate pullbacks.

The ADC particularly criticized the government’s celebration of a 0.2 percentage-point improvement in gross domestic product while companies were closing, jobs were disappearing and millions of Nigerians were falling deeper into poverty. The party said the poverty rate had reached 63 percent, affecting an estimated 140 million people.

Certainly, a 0.2 per cent growth does not justify the extreme hardship that Nigerians are suffering.

· African Democratic CongressThe party challenged the government’s emphasis on a small GDP improvement amid worsening economic hardship.

“Certainly, a 0.2 per cent growth does not justify the extreme hardship that Nigerians are suffering,” the party said. It challenged Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress to explain what the growth had improved in people’s daily lives, including how much food it had put on tables or which household bills it had paid. The ADC also pointed to workers whose salaries had lost value, businesses facing higher energy costs and households reducing the quantity and quality of their food.

The party attributed Uber’s departure, after 12 years in Nigeria, to what it called an increasingly hostile business environment. It cited soaring energy and transportation costs after the petrol subsidy was removed, as well as the devaluation of the naira. The ADC said its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had proposed restoring a targeted fuel subsidy to reduce fuel, transport and production costs. It also cited a previous Manufacturers Association of Nigeria report that it said recorded 767 manufacturing companies among firms that had closed or reduced operations.

When the President and his party say things are getting better, we expect them to tell us what has improved in the lives of Nigerians.

· African Democratic CongressThe opposition party demanded concrete evidence that economic growth had improved household conditions.
About this summary

Originally published by ThisDay in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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