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Assessing the economic impact of a compulsory holiday is definitely complex but at least, it can be partially explained by the long faces of traders that were seen on streets of Lagos last Thursday, after being ordered not to open their stalls till 2 pm.

The order from the Lagos State government obviously did not go down well with the traders, some of who had been loitering at the walkway of their shops before 10am.

Such is just one among the scenarios created by the various holidays that have been declared by state governments which had affected both the private and public sector of the economy.

No fewer than eight states have declared public holidays in the last one month. Abia, Ekiti, Kano, Niger, Ondo and Kaduna states have declared public holidays for the voter registration, disregarding its economic implications.

Some finance experts however say the holidays have impacted on national productivity and economic growth. Opeyemi Agbaje, a senior consultant at Resources and Trust Company Limited, a business advisory firm says the nation’s productivity has been affected by the registration process.

“Even before holidays were declared, the inefficiency of the process had already started affecting the productivity level of the nation,” Mr Agbaje said. “The day I registered, I virtually did not work. If you multiply that by all the people that have not worked or are presently not even working because of this registration process, we might be coming close to measuring the impact and knowing how much the nation has lost.”

He said it is the inefficiency of the process that should be blamed and not those declaring the holidays, as there was hardly any other feasible way to go about it. “This is something that should have been done in less than 10 minutes, if the procedure was efficient so that people can just stop by on their way to work or when they are back. I had to give some of the employees time off to go and register. I can’t really blame those calling for and declaring these holidays. It is because the process itself is inefficient” he said.

David Oke, an economist said when a nation’s output or productivity drops, its economic growth also falls. “During holidays, people don’t work and the nation loses its output because there is no productivity and because we don’t engage in any economic activity, economic growth declines.

According to him, countries try to avoid declaring holidays sporadically because of its economic implications. “In economics, when a nation’s output increases, economic growth increases and vice versa. The country must have lost lot of money from the declared holidays. That is why some countries hardly declare holidays because they know the implications” Mr Oke said.

Akinbamidele Akintola, a research analyst at Renaissance Capital, an investment banking firm says such declared strikes or compulsory holidays are not positive for a nation as it could cripple the entire system especially if it affects the banking sector, ports, airports, schools, oil and gas segment, transport and other segments.

“It is however a short term setback and it is not expected to pull the economy into a complete shutdown,” he said, adding that private companies were expected to continue their business activities as usual.

Adesoji Solanke, a banking analyst at a finance firm said such holidays could possibly save banks from the running costs of operations.

“For banks, it obviously partly saves them a day of running costs. Yes, the holidays may hinder some transactions from being processed, but Nigerian banks increasingly utilise e-banking channels nowadays, such that physical presence is not always necessary in banking halls, ultimately limiting any downside impact from the holiday. The holidays being declared are for the greater good, and that is how they should be viewed – an attempt to optimise citizens’ participation and achieve fair representation in the elections” Mr Solanke said.