After five whole months of ravaging impact of the global health emergency known as coronavirus or Covid-19, global, regional and national economies are picking the pieces with businesses left with the task of evolving strategies for the challenging road to recovery.
The impact of the deadly virus has been so deep that of the 19 major sectors of the Nigerian economy, 13 had a negative growth, according to the second quarter 2020 report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), meaning that the road to recovery is not only demanding, but also competitive.
This explains why experts say businesses have to be creative, innovative and introspective. The experts who spoke at a Webinar hosted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) with the theme ‘Road to Recovery’ advised that businesses have to brace up as Covid-19 impact is long term.
The Webinar which recorded 1086 participants from 10 different countries of the world took a hard look at the economic impact of Covid-19 in the West African Region. It noted that the impact will be long lasting and so, it is critical that not only the problems, but also the solutions are understood.
“Organisations need to keep their plans and various options constantly under review. They must work with a flexible plan. The outlook of the impact of Covid-19 is uncertain; therefore, they must work with a short to medium term plan,” Kwabena Situ, Associate Director, Business Process Solutions at Deloitte Ghana, advised.
Situ noted that most businesses did not have their business continuity plan and even if they had, it had never been tested, disclosing that they did a quick review of the business continuity plan to see if it could stand the test of time while looking at the likely impact of the Covid-19.
Among other measures, he recommended that organizations, in planning for the road to recovery, should be looking at the area of liquidity forecasting, reviewing of clients cash flow for the next three months, and also identifying what mitigation actions could be taken to preserve cash in the short and medium term.
Situ explained the role of accounting firms to SME’s and large organisations; how accounting firms are helping businesses to respond and also how his company, Deloitte is working with clients to increase their chances of survival.
He said that there were always opportunities for SME’s, noting, “at Deloitte, we help businesses to respond, recover and thrive; we offered certain pro-bono services where we could go in to carry out an impact assessment and also the likely impact of the Covid-19 on the business.”
Relating Nigeria’s experience, Taiwo Oyedele, the Tax Leader at PwC, noted that Covid-19 was a crisis like no other, pointing out that the challenges cut across government, private sector, individuals and SMEs.
“In Nigeria, we have seen some innovation around transportation companies, who were most impacted, trying to adapt by switching to logistics. There’s also some level of creativity from restaurants who now engage in home delivery of cooked meals,” he noted further.
All of these innovations, according to him, show the extent to which the human mind could process ideas if people do not limit themselves, adding that it also meant people could weather the storm and come out stronger in the end.
On other innovative and creative approaches businesses have embraced in trying to adapt, Laoye Jaiyeola, CEO, Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), said there has been innovations in the textile industry which could also be seen in the education sector.
“People are leveraging on technology as much as they can. There’s discussions and emphasis on broadband and fin-tech related matters deployed to all the various sectors and even the agricultural sector. As we enable those people, we will see new skills and employment and people will rethink how they do their business,” he noted.
In more ways than one, coronavirus has made fundamental changes in the lives of humans and businesses. According to Jamie Lyon, ACCA’s Global Head of Business, “to some extent, the pandemic has accelerated some of the things that were already on track.”
“Market is changing. The competitive landscape is shifting dramatically. Businesses need to be much more agile in terms of how they devise their strategy and how they implement it. A lot of organisations have had to be innovative around their business model,” he added.
