Mustard Insights Launches 2024 Nigeria Business Growth Survival Report

Mustard Insights, a  Nigerian data service start-up firm that provides African data to players in key industries to enable them stay ahead of the curve, has launched Its Nigeria’s Business Survival Report for the year 2024, highlighting key strategies for sustainable business growth amid economic downturn.

To better understand the impact of these harsh economic conditions on businesses in Nigeria, and the strategies employed to navigate them, Mustard Insights, the company said it conducted an in-depth survey of over 100 business leaders, culminating in the Nigeria’s Business Survival Report 2024: Strategies for Sustainable Business Growth Amid Economic Turbulence.

“The year 2024 no doubt, was a challenging one for businesses operating in Nigeria, and Africa by extension. Headline inflation rose to 34.80% in December, up from 34.60% in November, marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase and the highest level in almost three decades. The country’s economy also faced significant disruptions following the removal of fuel subsidies, devaluation of the Naira, food scarcity, amongst others. These factors contributed to the skyrocketing costs of essential commodities such as food, power, and transportation, making survival a daunting task for both individuals and businesses. Many companies had to put their expansion plans on hold, while some were forced to shut down, divest, or report major losses,” it said.

Following a broad macroeconomic overview, the report sets the stage by creating a schematic visualization of the combination of factors responsible for the country’s cost of living crisis. Next, it offers a comprehensive analysis of how businesses performed between 2023 and 2024, detailing how the economic downturn affected revenue, direct costs, job retention, amongst others, while also providing industry sentiment and projected outlook from business owners and top executives. Additionally, it presents insights into the strategic responses companies adopted to navigate the tough market conditions.

While the findings in this report are derived from extensive research, and the direct input of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and industry stakeholders, it also covers in-depth comparative analysis of Q3 results for the last three-year period (2022, 2023, and 2024) to assess comparative changes in revenue, direct costs, total expenses, and salaries of a sample of Nigeria’s top-listed companies on the NGX-30.

An excerpt of the report reads, “Similar to survey insights where raw material cost was identified as the highest cost element (input costs), analysis of NGX companies reveal a significant increase in costs in the year 2024 compared to 2023 compared to the rise in direct costs from 2022 to 2023. 

“While between 2022-2023 y-o-y, 70% of listed companies experienced only less than a 50% increase in direct costs, 20% experienced a 51% to 100% increase in direct costs, and only 10% had above 100% increase in costs, in YTD Q3 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, 80% of companies experienced as much as 51% to 100% increase in costs and 20% experienced above 100% increase in direct costs. None of the analyzed companies experienced less than a 50% increase in direct costs in 2024.”

Related Articles