The level of confidence in running a business in Nigeria improved going into the third quarter of the year, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said.

The LCCI, in a report made available to our correspondents on Wednesday, said the aggregate Business Confidence Index recorded a positive improvement of 24 per cent from the 10.5 per cent and 16.5 per cent in first and second quarters of 2013, respectively.

“This represents 13.5 per cent point movement of the index along a positive trajectory since the beginning of this year. The steady and significant improvement of the BCI score suggests that business leaders are gearing towards expanding their investments and plant size in the months to come,” LCCI said.

The report, which was signed by the Director-General, LCCI, Mr. Muda Yusuf, stated that aside the recurrent factors such as poor access to credit, insecurity and dwindling public power supply, the index posted impressive confidence across most businesses and economic indicators.

It said budget implementation, Federal Government’s security intervention in some parts of the North, impressive corporate results and the modest trends of exchange and inflation rates tended to have supported the record rise of business confidence.

LCCI said all the sectors of the economy recorded positive confidence.

It said, “For the first time, the financial sector recorded the highest confidence of 35 per cent, closely followed by hotel and restaurant, and telecoms and postal sectors, which recorded 29 per cent and 27 per cent confidence levels, respectively.

“The agricultural sector was impressive at 18 per cent, but the manufacturing sector remains disappointing at five per cent business confidence level. This implies that expansion and new investment in the Nigerian manufacturing sector remain largely held down by the lingering challenges confronting business environment in the country.

Sincere 9gerian: Where is @Gbawe? Has he gone AWOL?

taharqa2: They hv all 'convinently' gone AWOL... Bunch of Clowns

taharqa2: Not only are local Businessmen/investor's Confidence in d Economy increasing, but those of Foreign Investors are also increasing : highest FDI in Africa in 2 years at a row, and just day b4 yterday Nigeria's Europe Bonds was OVERSUBSCRIBED more than 4 times..... Yet, sm people wud want to tell us dat d Economy is broke/has collapsed..