Dwindling economy not caused by Covid-19, but bad fiscal policies – Otis Ojeikhoa
“What is impacting us is not Covid-19; what is impacting us is bad fiscal policies, declining oil revenues and high rate of inflation” says Otis Ojeikhoa, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Brands Optimal.
The agency boss made this assertion while assessing the Nigerian economic outlook especially against the background of the declining cases of Covid-19 pandemic during an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE.
He said that Nigeria was lucky during the pandemic lock-down associated with a lot of gloomy forecast, arguing that the nation’s current economic challenges are not an aftermath of Covid-19 restrictions on social interaction, but a result of her bad fiscal policies.
He stated that going by some of the incoming forecast for this year, which projected that life will return to normal if the dwindling revenue is augmented from the oil sale and other revenue generating government assets, this will lead to the declining cases of Covid-19 as every aspect of the economy comes back to where it has been pre-Covid-19.
In his words: “The outlook for me for this year in Nigeria will see growth in GDP, of 1.5% to 1.7%, the experiential market industry will experience growth versus last year, the things that we couldn’t do last year, and we will begin to do them.”
Speaking on the report that Nigeria recorded a 0.11% growth and the recent 18.17% inflation rate vis-a-vis the country’s marketing and advertising ecosystem, Mr. Otis said: “We are a barometer to measure the spend of the private sector, especially multi-nationals that are willing to invest in developing their markets and consumer-base drive through effective and efficient market system by helping clients to deliver better experiences and sales of products.”
On some of the new realities that came with the Covid-19, he attested that the pandemic has created new vistas or new opportunities to drive standard engagement.
Speaking from the perspective of experiential marketing, he said: “The new opportunity that this has created is that we can actually have virtual sampling and other events and still get feedback; though the experience may not be the same.”
He also added that advertising, which has always relied on the media, was able to explore and enjoy good patronage during the lock-down as more people stayed at home, making the new normal serve as a window of opportunity for advertising.
Making his futuristic projection for the experiential marketing space, the Brands Optimal boss stated that the IMC space is one and the same, adding that experiential marketing is just one of the items in the whole of the IMC space. He said that whatever affects one, affect the others since they all depend on similar source to drive revenue, while forecasting that the experiential marketing space is beginning to see recovery though not to the level of pre-Covid-19 pandemic.
“I believe that before the end of the year, we would probably have 40-50% recovery for the entire IMC.”
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