An African business panel report has revealed that six percent of African Business Professionals do not expect the company they work for to survive the Covid-19 Crisis.
This is the main result of an extended survey conducted by the Africa Business Panel and which was released last week in Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi and Amsterdam.
A statement from the panel to media outlets said that about 2/3 of the African companies representing 62 per cent say they are struggling but will survive. Almost a third of companies representing 29 per cent say they are doing well and the near future is looking good.
One in 25 African companies representing four per cent is doing better than ever due to the crisis.
“There are significant differences between countries. Least optimistic are companies in South Africa; no less than 10 per cent of participants working for South African companies don’t expect their company to outlive the Covid-19 crisis,” the statement said.
On the other end of the spectrum is Ghana where only 3 per cent of participants from Ghana fear the company they work for will not survive the crisis.
At the same time Ghanaian companies are least able to take advantage of the crisis; none of the Ghanaian participants felt that their company was thriving due to the crisis.
“In North Africa, 9 per cent of the companies are doing better than ever due to the crisis, by far the highest score in Africa. South Africa comes in second, having a score of 5 per cent.
“My company is diversified, so for the moment the impact of the crisis is low. But if the crisis is not over very soon, we shall be impacted,” said a participant from Côte d’Ivoire, working in Construction sector.
Another participant from South Africa, working in the Manufacturing sector said he was wasting his time interacting with government to secure social security payments for some of his employees.
“The government is generally unresponsive,” he said.
The hardest blow is expected by the smaller enterprises with 12 per cent of self-employed Africans expect not to survive the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.
The larger the company, the better the chances and of companies with over 250 employees, only 3 per cent predict their companies’ folding up.
Companies with over 250 employees also have the highest score five per cent for doing better than ever due to the crisis.
As compared to Manufacturing and Services, Trade has the worst outlook. 10 per cent of African trading companies does not expect to survive the crisis versus 6 percent for Manufacturing and 5 per cent for services.
24 per cent of African trade companies are doing fine or better than ever compared with 31 per cent for both Manufacturing and Services.
“We will need to focus on production and Agriculture, as they are the only way out for Africa to grow and lead,” said a participant from Sudan, working in Agriculture:
A participant from Nigeria, working in Services said the economic situation in the country requires urgent application of micro-economic funding for small and medium scale sectors.
“Tax relief should be given as incentives,” he said.
2166 African business professionals participated in a recent survey about how the Covid-19 Crisis is affecting business in Africa. Almost half of the participants representing 47 per cent is in general management. The survey was conducted by Africa Business Panel, the largest online Business Panel on the Continent.
