70% Of African Business Owners Expect More Than 10% Decrease In May Revenues

An online poll has revealed that many African business owners have predicted over 10 % loss in their next month, May revenue in their respective businesses.

In a live poll conducted by Africa.com on April 22 as part of its webinar series, Crisis Management for African Business Leaders, nearly 70% of webinar participants predicted that their business revenue will decrease by more than 10% next month.

Brandnewsday gathered that 47% participants in the webinar indicated that they expect their revenue to decrease by more than 25% next month, and 24% indicated that they expect revenues to decrease by more than 50% next month. Only 20% indicated that they expect revenue to remain the same or increase.

Approximately 1,500 business leaders participated in the poll. Participants came from 41 countries across the African continent, with the largest representation coming from Nigeria, followed by South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia. 60% of the participants have one of the following titles: CEO, managing director, president, principal, partner, CFO, chair, chief, director, executive director, group head, general manager, or manager. Of the remaining 40%, the leading titles are analyst and consultant.

The panel discussion is part of a four-part series on crisis management developed by Africa.com and three faculty members from Harvard Business School. The next webinar discussion will take place on Wednesday, April 29, and is moderated by Hakeem Belo-Osagie, Chair of FSDH Merchant Bank and Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. That webinar is entitled “This isn’t the West – How Africa’s Informal Sector Reacts to COVID-19.”