65% of businesses increased prices to stay afloat — Report

A report by Nigerian data company Mustard Insights has disclosed that 65 per cent of businesses increased the prices of their goods and services in the year 2024. The findings, based on a survey of over 100 business owners, executives, and industry leaders, offer a comprehensive look at how this year’s challenging economic conditions have […]

A report by Nigerian data company Mustard Insights has disclosed that 65 per cent of businesses increased the prices of their goods and services in the year 2024.

The findings, based on a survey of over 100 business owners, executives, and industry leaders, offer a comprehensive look at how this year’s challenging economic conditions have affected organisations of varying sizes. 

2024 was a challenging year for businesses operating in Nigeria. The country’s economy faced significant disruptions following the removal of fuel subsidies, the devaluation of the naira, a surge in inflation, among others.

These factors contributed to skyrocketing costs of essential commodities such as food, power, and transportation, making survival a daunting task for both individuals and businesses.

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Many companies had to put their expansion plans on hold, while some were forced to shut down, divest, or report major losses.

The report titled Nigeria’s Business Survival Report 2024: Strategies for Sustainable Business Growth Amid Economic Turbulence, first provided a broad macroeconomic overview as well as a schematic visualisation of the combination of factors responsible for the country’s cost of living crisis. 

the report also offers a comprehensive analysis of how businesses performed between 2023 and 2024, detailing how the economic downturn affected revenue, direct costs, job retention, among 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.

Some other key insights derived from the survey include: 85.4per cent of companies reported a substantial increase in business cost due to inflation. 43.7 per cent of business owners reduced their workforce.  41.7 percent of businesses diversified their product/service offerings and 46.6% of businesses failed to meet growth targets, among others.

While the findings in the 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 analysed companies experienced less than a 50% increase in direct costs in 2024.”