Award winning management consultant, Adedipupo Osinloye shared his expert view on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on businesses in Africa. He noted that no one could have accurately predicted the date and time the world will be hit by a pandemic. For everyone, Covid-19 came as a shock, but pandemics are not new, neither are businesses new to risk; yet, most businesses did not anticipate being hit by anything like this most devastating virus, and made no plans for such, he said.
According to Adedipupo, the pandemic’s impact has touched almost every aspect of modern life, upending public health systems, the global economy, travel, supply chains, community, and social ties and how all these factions work synergistically. He noted that unemployment has risen, and the global economy shrank by 4.4% in 2020, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates. The vast majority of nations around the world entered into recessions, having experienced negative GDP growths.
Adedipupo said developing countries have suffered disproportionately due to the socio-economic fallouts from the pandemic. Wealthier nations could afford to institute the crippling lockdowns and restrictions necessary at times to arrest the community spread of the virus, and to support their populations, so, they could stay home in an effort to limit the rising catastrophe. He noted that many developing countries however were often forced to rely on a mishmash of truncated measures to limit the fallouts on populations already living in poverty or who relied on daily work for subsistence. He said if businesses prepared for bad times and managed their risk appropriately; the impact would not be as hard as it currently is. He advised entrepreneurs to prepare and plan for uncertain times, chaotic seasons, rainy days, and moments when progress will be forcefully slow.
