The ebola outbreak in west African countries was not seriously affecting the Nigerian economy, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on Friday.
“We have a team monitoring the economic impact and we don’t feel we are yet at the point where we can say it’s having a huge impact on the economy,” Okonjo-Iweala said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa.
“There’s been some fall-off in hotel occupancy, in Lagos in particular, some meetings have been postponed, but you still have other businesspeople who are arriving.” Ebola has killed at least 2 288 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, countries on the Atlantic coast that do not border Nigeria.
Last week the parent of Nigeria’s biggest company, Dangote Cement, said it was postponing a planned investor day in Lagos as a result of Ebola-related travel fears. – Bloomberg