With increasing concern mounting on the deadly Coronavirus across the world, Nigerian businessmen within and outside the country have continued to lament over the impact of the scourge on their business activities. Some of these businessmen, according to Saturday Telegraph investigations, are already counting their loses, since some of them claim that they can neither import, export or service their production machines, which they use in their various businesses.

Investigations revealed that some of these businessmen, who are already in dilemma as to their next line of action, urged the Federal Government to explore avenues to ameliorate the situation since they were losing millions of naira as a result of the impact of the disease. Speaking with Saturday Telegraph on the impact of the disease, a Nigerian businessman, who is into the manufacturing plastic products and other related wares in Lagos, Mr. Bigger Ibekwe, lamented that he had lost million of Naira as a result of the outbreak of Coronavirus.

He said the impact of the disease in China, had rubbed off on his business growth, given the fact that his Chinese technicians, who were supposed to carryout routine maintenance work on his machines couldn’t do that as they were currently held back due to the menace of the virus. Ibekwe expressed sadness that despite his huge financial investment in his business, he was in a fix and unable to decide his next line of action, given the outbreak of Coronavirus, whose menacing impact had continued to cause suspense and concern across the world.

He said: “I am feeling the impact on my business because my production is put on hold as I can’t run my machine as the Chinese people that were billed to travel from China to Nigeria to help with the machine can’t travel. “We have to put their visa application and travel plans on hold because of restriction on movement as a result of the Coronavirus.” Commenting further, he said the situation had really drained him, and that he had lost count of how much had been lost as a result of this.

“It’s difficult to place a figure on the losses, most especially when we’ve not computed it. However, some of our loaded raw materials could not depart from the ports. “Our expatriates could not return to Nigeria, therefore, the machines they were to repair and some for installation are waiting.

Honestly speaking, it’s still too early to calculate the losses incurred as a result of this epidemic.” While lamenting that the outbreak of the virus had affected his his plans to boost his plastic business, Ibekwe said his manufacturing-production timeline could not meet up with it schedule due to the effect of Coronavirus.

His lamentation is however, not in any way different from many of the Nigerian businesses which have dealings with Chinese except in terms of proportion. According to him, many Nigerian businesses are suffering the impact of it and the magnitude of coronavirus will be better appreciated towards the end of this month or early next month when they all begin to count their losses as it is too hasty to determine the figures now.

He said this was because production work was put on hold in many of the factories, especially in Wuhan, the source of the virus and where the people have been restricted indoors for weeks with no one going out to work.

On his expectation, Ibekwe said: “Once the old stocks are exhausted, it will be difficult to get new ones because no production work and shipping of goods are not ongoing. In the case of Nigeria, he said it took a minimum of 28 days for goods shipped from China to arrive the country.

“Therefore, the situation will be compounded for many Nigerian businesses when they are confronted at the end of this month or early next month with empty warehouses and idle factories as result of this prevailing situation.”

While it may be difficult for him to quantity in monetary terms the losses he has incurred since last month when the Chinese couldn’t visit his factory for the scheduled maintenance of his machines and equipment, which he said all were China products and difficult to get the right technicians for them here, he said he was more worried about the creditability of his business and person.

“It is certainly difficult to place a figure on the losses presently but I am even more worried not by the monetary loss but my inability to meet up with the demands of my customers and the effect that will have on my credibility and business,” said Ibekwe, who revealed that the last time he visited China was in October last year and was billed to visit soon but that visit he said was also on hold now. While no one is sure yet when normalcy will return, he, however, takes solace in the fact that the suffering may not last for too long as China has the capacity to increase its operations and clear the backlogs. He also assured people of health and safety of the goods and other consumable items from the country as the virus is only contacted through human contacts and that makes every other thing safe and healthy. (Saturday Telegraph)

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