How Hard Has The Present Recession Affected Nigerians & The Entertainment industry?
It’s no longer news that we’re fully in economic recession. The country currently reeks of recession and no one, not even one is being spared a breath of this stinking bad stench. Almost at every turn, the poor, and even the so-called rich can be audibly overheard complaining bitterly about the present state of their financial affairs.
The situation that is been described is the lowest economic performance in about 25 years with over four million jobs lost already in one year. Everyday, more Nigerians leave the corporate world with hung heads and shrunken shoulders to join the teeming population of the unemployed, with the nagging knowledge that they have very little to fall back on; even their life savings have been considerably depleted.
More worrisome is the depth of the recession, with GDP declining at -2.06 per cent, more than the expected growth rate of 1.8% as projected by the IMF.
It is gathered that the severe drop in oil prices, decline in government revenue, devaluation of the naira and surging inflation rates, unending increase in prices of food-items, in addition to the country’s high poverty (70%) and unemployment (14.2%) rates have had a stinging detrimental effect on the economic security of most citizens and households.
The economic recession is devastating lives and livelihoods across country, and quickly translating into hunger and powerlessness among Nigerians. This is also exacerbated by the failure of many states to pay workers’ salaries timely, further pushing Nigerians deeper into poverty.
Even the illustrious Entertainment industry is not left out of this effect. Never in the history of Nigerian Entertainment industry has a brand dropped as many as 10 superstars from its roaster as MTN did a few months ago. In a single move, MTN dropped Davido, Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Dr. Sid, Sound Sultan, Banky W, Kcee, Harrysong and others as brand ambassadors all at once, and they’ve not been signed on by other brands which is very weird.
A few years ago, competing brands will be struggling to get the dropped stars on board. Guess the grass is not greener anywhere.
It is however unclear what the growth rate of the entertainment sector is, as there are no available data due to absence of growth indicators, but the industry practitioners are complaining.
While Solomon Gilala, a fashion designer and entertainment analyst is of the opinion that the recession is in no way affecting the industry. In his words, ‘Recession isn’t affecting entertainment. Though It can affect local business for them because their normal sponsors are loosing business margins, but this is the time when most of our artists are getting shows abroad because it’s cool foreign currency earnings for them‘.
Artiste manager, Sotuminu Olasile says that recession is a mere word because night clubs in Lagos still sell out, ‘I really don’t see recession affecting the entertainment industry. Shows are been held, artists perform regularly and they get paid, some even charge higher fees. Quilox and Escape night clubs are booming, so i think recession is just a word in our heads,‘ he said.
Also according to some quarters, the current economic recession in Nigeria is affecting not just the country but other countries in West Africa.
Speaking on this Mr Marcel de Souza, the President of the ECOWAS commission, said that the recession being experienced in Nigeria has a negative impact on the sub-region’s overall economic performance.
According to economic experts, all these are expected to still continue for at least the next three years.
In what specific ways do you think Nigerians has been affected by this recession and how long do you think it will continue?
