As coronavirus fears spread leading to the ban on public gatherings by the Federal Government of Nigeria, operators of event centres in the country risk loss of estimated N800 million monthly revenue, BusinessDay findings have shown.
The federal government on Tuesday banned all social and public gatherings for the next 30 days as part of measures to check the spread of the virus in the country. This has prompted the cancellation of all conferences and events already planned to take place within the next 30 days.
“The coronavirus is affecting our operations; all the conferences slated for our centre have been canceled and that means loss of revenue for us. We are looking at the loss of about N8 million in the next one month,” Paul Onwuanibe, CEO, Landmark Lagos, told BusinessDay.
According to him, if there were 100 event centres in Nigeria, it means that sector of the economy would be losing over N800 million monthly revenue for as long as this pandemic persists and the ban on public gathering lasts.
Landmark Lagos, also known as Landmark Village, is a one-stop-shop for living, working, and leisure. Its leisure facilities are world-class with the Landmark Event Centre being a leading destination for corporate events in the city.
Onwuanibe said that the Coronavirus was affecting everything real estate including hospitality where occupancy rate has dropped, and retail where footfalls have also dropped at malls as people fear contact with other people. Demand for both residential and commercial property has come down too.
Gbenga Olaniyan, the CEO of Estate Links, told BusinessDay that though the impact of the virus was not yet on property prices, it was already quite deep on transactions, especially on non-essential real estate.
He said that if the virus did not go away in the next month, there was every possibility of it affecting property price and that would mean revenue loss for investors and agents alike.
“Clients no longer go for inspection because they fear physical contact with other people,” he said, citing an instance of a client who wanted to take a space in Trinity Towers, an iconic office building in Lagos, but had to put it off till further notice because he did not want to go for inspection.
