Outcome of elections will impact 2023 business outlook – Experts
By Ibidunni Banjoko
As Nigerians gear up for the 2023 polls in another election season, experts in the public relations consulting industry have expressed professional views on how the general elections will impact on business outlook in 2023.
While speaking to the press at the 2023 Public Relations Consulting Association of Nigeria’s (PRCAN) Annual Economic Outlook, which was held recently in Lagos, Foluso Phillips, Chairman, Phillips Consulting Limited, said experts in the industry need to wait for election outcome, as players, he noted, are just carrying on their businesses with the best they can. The outcome of the polls, he stated, will determine the policy thrust of the new government.
“After the elections, they need to sort out the senate, national assembly, and others until we get through all these in the second quarter, maybe early third quarter of the year. Nothing much will happen during this period; let us carry on as we can, we hope that the economy is upheld until we decide the kind of strategic direction the new government is going to push us into,” he said.
Speaking further, he said: “PR practitioners should be working more like professional consultants that solve problems and provide advice to clients, and other value chains involved. They need to be a bit more professional in terms of their outfit and build stronger focus in creating an institution that has great power of succession, ensuring also to follow the model that other consulting firms are following all over the world.
“They need to redefine themselves and stop taking themselves as an agency but consulting firm that provides consulting solutions to organisations that want a stronger public relations image in Nigeria. The whole industry is changing to digital; they need to look at that part of the ecosystem and think of how to help organisation to strive in this digitized world today.”
On his part, Israel Jaiye Opayemi, the PRCAN president, added that at every election year, there is reluctance on the part of businesses to make a lot of bold moves because they want to see the outcome of the election, to see whether there will be policy changes, changes in the monetary and fiscal policies.
“Expectedly, immediately after these elections, once the new government is sworn in and businesses see that there won’t be significant changes, then we are bound to see a spike in marketing activities that we support as players in the marketing communication sector of the economy,” he said.
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