Economic outlook of Sub-Saharan Africa
Apr. 8, 2023 | By MindPulse Editor | Our Thinking |
Africa currently has sloe to 2.2 million Covid-19 cases and 51,000 deaths according to Africa CDC (https://africacdc.org/covid-19/). The Southern Africa region leads with the number of cases at close to 900,000 cases followed by North Africa, Easter, Western and Central respectively. The effects of the pandemic on Africa’s economies is expected to be quite adverse and it will take a lot of effort and time for the continent to recover. Some of the sectors that have been heavily impacted includes Tourism & Hospitality Industry, Retail, Transport and even productivity in manufacturing and agriculture as all sectors slowed down and implemented strict government measures to slow the pandemic. In a continent where technology is just taking root, reduced physical interaction is bound further slow down the economic recovery. On the upside, technology oriented businesses like Mpesa Money Transfer in Kenya as well as Home Delivery Services like Jumia, Sendy, Spanish Glovo etc. have seen a tremendous growth in their business as more and more people adopted technology to deal with the government imposed restrictive measures.
The recent good news about vaccine is expected to provide hope of a recovery towards the second quarter of 2021. This even though as the continent seems still unprepared in terms of infrastructure to distribute the vaccine whenever it will be available. The added impact of locust especially in East Africa on a continent heavily reliant on agriculture will ensure Africa needs global support to get back to a positive economic footing.
At Mind Pulse, as a research and consulting company in the trade and market research, we will continue monitoring the impact of the pandemic and some of the emerging issues and trends as we adopt to the NEW NORMAL!
The writer is the Managing Director at Mind Pulse Consulting!