Poll reveals 70% of African businesses expect revenues to decline 10% in May

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.

47% 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 largest sectors represented are financial services and professional services, followed by energy and manufacturing.

A smaller tier consisted of real estate, health care, agriculture, health care, and media, arts & entertainment.

The live poll preceded a panel discussion on Liquidity – Managing Cash Flow When Sources of Revenue and Funding Dry Up moderated by Kunle Elebute, Chair, KPMG, with the following panelists: Welela Dawit, CFO, GE; Admassu Tadesse, President and Chief Executive of the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB); and Sim Tshabalala, Chief Executive, Standard Bank Group.