The 2011 MasterCard Consumers Confidence Survey Index report for Africa rates Nigeria top in Africa Consumer Confidence
Results of the latest MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence survey for the first half of the year proved that Nigeria is not only the giant of Africa as it is widely known, but true to that appelation, its consumer confidence is soaring, rising from 83.2 points in the corresponding period last year to 93.8 points, an increase of 12.7 per cent.
The survey was conducted from March 15 to April 27 and it involved consumers from 24 markets across the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions. “The notable increase of nearly 13 per cent compared to the 83.2 per cent that the market scored a year ago clearly indicates that Nigerians are approaching the next six months with a strong sense of optimism,” says Daniel Monehin, area head, East & West Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, MasterCard Worldwide.
The MasterCard Worldwide survey has a 19-year track record. Now in its third year in Nigeria, the survey is the region’s most comprehensive consumer confidence survey. Carried out twice a year, the index is based on a survey which measures consumer confidence on prevailing expectations in the market for the next six months based on five economic indicators: economy, employment, stock market, regular income, and quality of life. The index score is calculated with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as most optimistic and 50 as neutral.
Compared to Nigeria’s index results six months ago, two of the five indicators – regular income and employment – increased marginally by 0.6 points each, while consumer sentiment on the economy remained unchanged. However, these gains were offset by the quality of life and stock market indicators that both declined by 1.7 points. Regular income at 99 points was the most optimistic of the five indicators for Nigerians, followed by quality of life with a score of 97.5. Consumer sentiment on the economy and employment indicators remained positive with scores of 97.3 and 96.3 respectively.
When asked whether they were expecting their regular income to either increase, remain the same or decrease over the next six months, nearly 93 per cent of Nigerian respondents said that they were expecting it to increase, seven per cent said they were expecting it to remain the same and only one per cent said that they were expecting it to decrease.”
The stock market indicator, while still in optimistic territory with a score of 79.1, was the least positive of the five indicators and showed a decline of 1.7 points compared to the previous index. When asked whether they thought the local stock market index would go up, remain the same, or go down over the next six months, nearly 65 per cent of Nigerian respondents said that they were expecting it to go up, however, 35 per cent expected it to either remain the same or go down.
Although still a positive result, the Nigerian consumer confidence level is off its historical high of 94.3 points recorded in the second half of 2010. However, it remains above Nigeria’s historical average of 90.2 since the survey was first conducted in the second half of 2009. From an African perspective, among the four additional African markets included in the survey, Nigeria was the most optimistic market, with 5.8 points higher than the next most optimistic market – Morocco. “It’s very encouraging to see that Nigerian consumer confidence continues to be strong, steady and positive, and currently higher than Nigeria’s historical average since the survey was first conducted in 2009, ” says Monehin.
The survey comprising the Asia/Pacific markets began in the first half of 1993 and has been conducted twice yearly since. Markets from the Middle East and Africa were included in the index from 2004. Twenty-four markets now participate in the survey and they include Australia, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, South Africa, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.
