Focusing solely on the Nigeria business landscape for the month of August 2025, the BCM report, while showing slight improvement, it visually and thematically shows that companies are facing severe issues primarily around access to financing, rising costs and deeper structural issues across sectors.
According to the latest Business Confidence Monitor (BCM) Report prepared by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and Stanbic IBTC, the Current Business Performance Index improved slightly to 107.3 points compared to 105.4 points in July, an increase of 1.9 points. This nascent rise hints at some level of resilience in certain sectors of the economy despite the pervasive structural and financial constraints.
A few highlights from the Business Performance Index were:
- Current Business Performance Index: 107.3 points (up 1.9 from July).
- Sectoral Breakdown:
- Trade: 114.1 points (strong rebound).
- Non-Manufacturing: 116.2 points (steady growth).
- Manufacturing: 106.2 points (moderate expansion).
- Services: 103.7 points (stable growth).
- Agriculture: 95.6 points (contraction).
The report that is highlighted in this section is labelled ‘Mixed Signals: Strong sectoral growth versus structural issues’ and tells us two narratives, one being that there is some sectoral growth supported by investment and reform and the second, there are still very deep-rooted infrastructure and financing and inflation challenges.
Major constraints faced by Nigerian businesses
The BCM identified a number of major constraints Nigeria firms continue to face:
- Limited Access to Financing
- Credit remained scarce and expensive.
- Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) faced high collateral requirements.
- Investment, export, credit, and price sub-indices all declined.
- Inflation and Forex Volatility
- Inflation remained high despite slight easing, eroding household demand.
- The naira’s volatility pushed up the cost of imported raw materials and equipment.
- Price instability created difficulties in forecasting demand and sales.
- Energy and Infrastructure Constraints
- Power supply remained unreliable, forcing businesses to depend on costly generators.
- Transmission losses and vandalism hampered the grid.
- High energy costs reduced competitiveness, especially for manufacturers.
- Security and Logistics Bottlenecks
- Transport disruptions and insecurity along trade routes increased operational costs.
- Banditry and poor road infrastructure created unpredictable delays.
- Agricultural supply chains were especially affected by insecurity in farming regions.
- Agribusiness Struggles
- Surging prices of fertilisers, feed, and packaging strained operators.
- Consumer demand weakened due to high food inflation.
- Limited reinvestment and closures slowed agricultural growth.
Policy recommendations from report
The BCM listed the following actions to immediately stabilize and empower Nigeria’s business environment:
- Expand SME Financing
- Accelerate implementation of credit guarantees and targeted lending facilities.
- Improve liquidity in the financial system to ease borrowing conditions.
- Stabilize Input Prices and Forex
- Strengthen measures to curb inflation.
- Improve liquidity in the foreign exchange market to reduce volatility.
- Address Energy Challenges
- Fast-track power generation and transmission upgrades.
- Invest in anti-vandalism measures to protect infrastructure.
- Enhance Security and Logistics
- Secure trade routes and agricultural regions.
- Improve road and transport infrastructure to reduce costs and delays.
- Support Agriculture
- Provide targeted input subsidies or support for fertilisers and feed.
- Develop climate adaptation strategies for crop production.
Outlook
The rise in the Business Performance Index to 107.3 points signals:
- Resilience in trade, services, and manufacturing.
- Targeted investment and reforms beginning to show results.
- Potential opportunities in technology, finance, logistics, and select services.
Simultaneously, it’s evident that the persistent issue of access to finance, coupled with high inflation, limited energy supply, and security challenges signify a weak recovery.
For business, it is a message of possibility which exist, conditioning on strong liquidity and resilience. For policymakers, it is harder to ignore this data, and from there decisive interventions will be needed to improve the sector to support growth immediacy and not risk reversing the gains made in August.
Conclusion
Nigeria’s business community has demonstrated adaptability and resolve amid navigating tough obstacles. The results from the August BCM assessment shows an economy with an abundance of opportunity, and structural hurdles that will hold up or stall movement, unless urgent measures are taken. Achieving sustained impact will be dependent on taking collective action on finance accessibility, connect inflation stabilization, secure infrastructure, and activate investment potential.