
<p>As any South African business person will tell you, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a stressful time to be running a company. However, as we have worked to mitigate the effects of Covid-19, we have also gained a glimpse of what the future of business might look like. It is an exciting prospect.</p>



<p>This is not to downplay the incredibly difficult time we find ourselves in. Lives are being lost, people are falling ill, quarantine regulations are forcing families into heart-breaking situations. Lockdown has come with its own hardships and has also led to the downfall of several businesses.</p>



<p>These are terrible outcomes, and one feels for our fellow South Africans.&nbsp; However, the crisis has also taught us something.</p>



<p>In our business, when the state of disaster was first declared, our initial focus was to understand how regulations applied to us, and then to ensure the safety of our staff and our customers.</p>



<p>People are remarkably resilient, and it was a pleasant surprise to see that staff and customers settled into a new routine within a couple of days.</p>



<p>However, there would be no getting away from the economic impact of the global shutdown. The statistics from the first two weeks of the lockdown were unprecedented. Some businesses saw their income streams evaporate overnight.</p>



<p>As a business in the telematics, fleet management and vehicle recovery space, we saw our call-outs decline to almost nothing. For the first time in our history, our metrics reflected no criminal incidents on certain days.</p>



<p>We were not busy, which was worrying, but the quiet period gave us a chance to critically evaluate our business and consider how we would structure our operation going forward. This was Design Thinking made manifest. We had a chance to structurally reinvent ourselves.</p>



<p>We also started to notice some interesting things. For instance, despite social distancing and remote work, we were having more conversations with our customers than ever before. We were mostly checking on how they were managing the lockdown and finding solutions around payment relief to help each other through the lockdown.</p>



<p>But we came to realise that customer service is not a function of physical interaction. It can be done just as effectively – more effectively, even – by digital means. The power of technology allows one to speak to the entire workforce at any given moment.</p>



<p>Similarly, with internal staff communication. Through our weekly newsletters, virtual town hall meetings and other engagements during the lockdown, are staff relations have in fact improved.</p>



<p>As a direct result of this enhanced staff engagement, and suggestions from staff, we will be launching four innovative new products to market following the lockdown period.</p>



<p>We have found that we’re probably more productive as a business, and we’re communicating better with our partners, customers and co-workers than ever before. We are determined that after the lockdown, we will embed these more effective digital ways of working into our operations.</p>



<p>We also found ourselves taking a closer look at our assets. Metrics showed our staff were as effective working from home, which has forced a fundamental rethink about our premises, and the need for a centralised campus.</p>



<p>We are now looking at becoming a remote-working organisation by design. We are also enhancing our ecommerce capability.</p>



<p>On a more human level, our company has been blessed to have been spared any serious Covid-19 incidents. But the threat is real. This has led us to interact on a more humane, empathetic and sincere level – as clients, suppliers, partners and colleagues.</p>



<p>Staff are supporting each other, practically by sharing lifts to work, or by forgoing leave or financial bonuses. We are coming to understand how much we all mean to each other.</p>



<p>This also has implications for customer relations. When we start relating from a position of empathy, and we feel fulfilled at really being able to help each other, then customer centricity becomes easier to implement.</p>



<p>When the initial lockdown was declared, and business slowed to a trickle, we also looked at how we might make the most productive use of our staff. We decided to invest in training, through our learning platform with Udemy.</p>



<p>Staff uptake on the various courses has been phenomenal. We have found such a hunger for further education and self-improvement, that we have come to a new understanding of ourselves as a “learning organisation”. It seems the more knowledge we provide, the more appetite there is to learn. Two-thirds of our workforce are enrolled in training courses.</p>



<p>On the AI front, while we have always used artificial intelligence to gain insights, the pandemic has forced us to make better use of it. Today, we use chatbots to manage customer queries and to enhance CRM management.</p>



<p>Our response times are now quicker, and metrics show that customers are happier. We have seen that putting the customer at the centre of your business is not just about face-to-face meetings. You can use technology to serve your customers better. This is what we plan to do.</p>



<p>It has not been easy, but our business will survive. We will emerge from the pandemic as a transformed, more digital, customer-centric organisation, with a deeper culture of learning, and stronger human bonds with our people.</p>



<p>Those human bonds are what business is all about. The pandemic didn’t quite teach us that, but it did remind us. Our shared humanity is what holds us together.</p>


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COMMENT: How I grappled with business during COVID-19

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<p>Vetiva Capital Management says although Nigeria’s total debt to GDP ratio is below the suggested prudential upper band of 40 per cent for developing economies, a higher than projected fiscal deficit, high cost of borrowing and weaker Naira may further limit Nigeria’s fiscal space and reduce the capacity to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. Mosope Arubayi, Chief Economist at Vetiva joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


COVID-19: Vetiva Capital’s fiscal outlook for Nigeria

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<p>The Covid-19 pandemic is making businesses shift their models to working remotely, thereby making authenticated identity increasingly critical to unlock financial inclusion, drive e-commerce and financial services. Esigie Aguele, CEO of Nigerian KYC start-up; Verifyme joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


COVID-19: Authenticated identity becoming critical as businesses work remotely

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<p>Global engineering talent company, Andela is looking to double its talent pool and is ready to accept engineers from all African countries. Omowale David-Ashiru, Andela’s Vice President for Global Operations joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Andela looks to double talent pool with Africa expansion

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<p>Mozambique is seen as a growth potential for investment opportunities, according to the International Monetary Fund its GDP is predicted at 5.5 per cent in 2020 and inflation projected to remain low, increasing slightly to 5 per cent at the end of the year. Ettiene Erasmus, Entrepreneur of Mozambique Property Developments &#038; Investments joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Positive economic growth prospects fuelling Mozambique property rush

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<p>The brewing industry has always attracted double digit growth due to the demand of beer, wine and other spirit drinks. The Covid-19 pandemic has however dealt a hard blow to the industry, with bars and pubs forced to close as part of the measures to curb the spread of the disease. Andrew Cowan, Group Managing Director and CEO, East African Breweries Limited joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


East African Breweries CEO shares how the company is responding to the COVID-19 challenges

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<p>COVID-19 has had a significant economic impact across East Africa, from macro to consumer-level. Global shocks and local restrictions aimed at curbing the virus spread have severely impacted businesses across sectors but how can they bounce back? CNBC Africa’s Arnold Kwizera spoke to Mills Schenck, Managing Director and Partner at the BCG Nairobi for more.</p>


How businesses in East Africa can adapt and built resilience in the face of COVID-19


<p>Pandemic costs Africa travel, tourism almost $55 billion &#8211; Reuters</p>



<p>DAKAR (Reuters) &#8211; African countries have lost almost $55 billion in travel and tourism revenues in three months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the African Union (AU) commissioner for infrastructure and energy said on Thursday.</p>



<p>Amani Abou-Zeid told a news conference the economic impact of lockdowns and border closures to curb the spread of the virus would be severe, with the continent’s air industry hit particularly hard.</p>



<p>She said tourism and travel represented almost 10% of the gross domestic product of Africa.</p>



<p>“We have 24 million African families whose livelihood is linked to travel and tourism,” Abou-Zeid said, adding the downturn had come in a year when Africa was expected to see an increase in travel and air transport.</p>



<p>“The blow is very hard, between the economic losses and the job losses,” Abou-Zeid said. African airlines have seen a 95% drop in revenues, or about $8 billion, along with other losses such as the deterioration of assets, she said.</p>



<p>“Some airlines in the continent will not make it post-COVID-19,” she said, adding the blow came at a time when some airlines were in the early stages of development, while others, such as South African Airways, were in difficulties even before the pandemic.</p>



<p>Abou-Zeid said more resistant carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines were using the opportunity to acquire smaller struggling companies, but the outbreak had put a halt to the AU’s plan for a single African air transport market.</p>



<p>Prosper Zo’o Minto’o, regional director for the International Civil Aviation Organization, told the news conference that African airlines would need an estimated $20 billion to resume operations.</p>



<p>Ivory Coast’s national airline Air Cote d’Ivoire, which restarted domestic flights on Friday, said it had received 14 billion CFA francs ($24 million) from the government to keep it afloat.</p>


tourism-1845203_1280

Pandemic costs Africa travel, tourism almost $55 billion

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<p>The Afrimat Construction Index for the first quarter of 2020 has shown significantly depressed figures with the index itself falling by more than 27 per cent. Roelof Botha, Economist and Head of the Afrimat Construction Index, urges that these figures prove how important the recovery plan is for the construction sector.</p>


Roelof Botha: SA’s construction industry in need of COVID-19 recovery plan

Roelof Botha: SA’s construction industry in need of COVID-19 recovery plan, here’s why

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<p>The global talent network that helps companies build remote engineering teams, Andela, recently announced its move to go fully remote and expand its presence in all African countries. But what exactly are the pros and cons of the remote working model? Wambui Kinya, Vice President, Partner Engineering at Andela joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Andela goes fully remote in response to COVID-19

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<p>Efforts by Kenyan government to fight bribery and corruption seem to have been of little avail since the crime has overtaken procurement-related fraud as the most common economic crime. Now the country has resorted to punish individuals who fail to report cases of bribery with a fine of Ksh5 million or a 10-year jail terms under a proposed law. Charles Kanjama, Advocate at the High Court of Kenya joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Kenyans face 10-year jail term for not reporting bribery under new law


<p>Tesla Inc is building mobile molecule printers to help make the potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by CureVac in Germany, the electric-car maker’s Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, tweeted on Wednesday.FILE PHOTO: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the automobile awards &#8220;Das Goldene Lenkrad&#8221; (The golden steering wheel) given by a German newspaper in Berlin, Germany, November 12, 2019. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo</p>



<p>CureVac, an unlisted German company, has said it is developing portable, automated mRNA production units that it calls printers and which Musk described as “RNA microfactories”.</p>



<p>They are being designed to be shipped to remote locations, where they can churn out its vaccine candidate and other mRNA-based therapies depending on the recipe fed into the machine.</p>



<p>But for the immediate pandemic use &#8211; should its vaccine candidate win market approval – it has production sites with regulatory approval in Germany with a capacity to produce hundreds of millions of doses.</p>



<p>The company, based in Tuebingen and backed by the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, is a pioneer of the so-called messenger RNA approach, which is also pursued by BioNTech and its partner Pfizer as well as Moderna.</p>



<p>RNA molecules are single-stranded versions of the DNA double-helix. Thanks to their recurring molecular pattern, they can be produced in a relatively simple biochemical process that do not require genetically modified living cells, which are needed to produce most other biotech drugs.</p>



<p>CureVac is also building a new stationary site that could increase its output tenfold to billions of doses.</p>



<p>The “microfactories” would be built at Tesla Grohmann Automation in Germany, Musk said in a Twitter thread late on Wednesday night.</p>



<p>Tesla acquired the company that develops automated manufacturing systems for batteries and fuel cells in 2016 to expand its production.</p>



<p>CureVac has been working with Tesla Grohmann to develop the mobile printer technology, a person familiar with CureVac said.</p>



<p>Musk did not elaborate on his plans. Tesla and CureVac were not immediately available to comment.</p>



<p>Musk, who is known to make impromptu announcements on Twitter, had in March said that Tesla has extra FDA-approved ventilators that can be shipped free of cost to hospitals within regions where the electric-car maker delivers.</p>


Billionaire Elon Musk: I am not Warren Buffett’s biggest fan

Billionaire Elon Musk: I am not Warren Buffett’s biggest fan. gettyimages-1155740300-594×594

African born Elon Musk tweets: Tesla to make molecule printers for COVID-19 vaccine developer.


<p></p>



<p>By Anu Shah</p>



<p>Covid 19 has brought unprecedented economic uncertainty across the world and tech companies think hard about the future and investments.</p>



<p>Especially, since the FANGs of the world are sitting on cash reserves larger than the GDPs of some countries. Infact Apple and Google are shopping aggressively for the strategic companies at a discount. For instance, Apple acquired NextVR &nbsp;for $100Mn, Amazon acquired Zoox for $1Bn. So what does the future of the tech start-ups and venture capital look like? To understand that let&#8217;s take a look at how does a venture capital works.</p>



<p>Typically, a venture capital firm raises money from the largest and most diversified institutional investors with a fund life of roughly 10 years. New investments are made in the first two to three years of a fund’s life. Venture capital creates a large reserve to make follow-on investments through the end of a fund’s term. As a rule of thumb, investors reserve $1 for every $1 invested in an early-stage company. The combination of long fund terms and dedicated reserves helps mitigate the effects of turbulence on funds and portfolio companies.</p>



<p>The United States venture capital industry has existed for 50 years. It has weathered many storms and is ready for anything. There the venture capital industry aggregated $275Bn in the last six years. Using both a fund-by-fund analysis and averages across the industry, it is estimated that the industry has $150Bn of “dry powder” of which likely $76Bn is earmarked for reserves for existing companies and $74Bn for new investments.</p>



<p>This present level of reserves is strong relative to any recent cycle. While one can be optimistic, albeit cautiously about a large reserve to help start-ups through this fundraising drought, venture capitalists will change their strategy drastically to advance further, here are some tips for the industry: &nbsp;</p>



<p>1. Be very selective about investing: Venture capitalists have invested $280bn in the last two years. In the case of backing companies at current levels, we would run out of reserves in four quarters. Hence, there will be increased scrutiny and diligence in investing, more focus on unit metrics cash flows, sustainable and profitability; over traction and growth at the expense of high cash burn; &nbsp;having said that, funding for innovative technologies, such as personalized medicine, online education, remote workforce solutions, and reliable Internet connectivity, will be bullish.</p>



<p>2. Prioritise existing portfolio companies for funding: Since 2014, more than 10,000 US companies in the U.S. that have been funded. Many companies have exited, found profitability, or already have strong balance sheets, but many more do not have alternatives and will need capital assistance. Venture capitalists will use the reserves to support their portfolio first.</p>



<p>3. Redirect focus on institutional investors for raising new funds: In good times, capital can come from a variety of sources including hedge funds, mutual funds, and wealthy individuals. When the cycle turns, these alternative sources can substantially pause their investing or exit the industry indefinitely, leaving only institutional investors as a primary capital source. Hence venture capitalists trying to close the new funds will double down on one channel, putting more pressure on the performance and exits of current portfolio companies. 4. Employ alternate investment and fund raising tools to continue funding: Alternate tools, such as fund recycling, that is, investing profits from old investments into strong existing portfolio companies, crossover investing, that is, investing from newer funds into older funds, and formal and informal co-investment vehicles.This will provide a boost to the industry’s reserve capacity to continue investing in the start-ups.</p>


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COMMENT: How to make money from venture capital in the uncertain world of COVID-19

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<p>Niyi Falade, CEO of Crusader Sterling Pensions joins CNBC Africa for some insight on how Nigeria’s Pension Fund Administrators plan to weather the Covid-19 storm in the second half of the year.</p>


Crusader Sterling Pensions: How Covid-19 will impact Nigerian pension funds in H2

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<p>A cooperative and cohesive public and private sector healthcare system would be the best response to the Covid-19 crisis in South Africa; this is according to representative organisations of South Africa&#8217;s medical profession and the Progressive Health Forum. However, according to Dr Aslam Dasoo authorities have not engaged with the private healthcare sector as much as it should, Dr Dasoo, Member of the Progressive Health Forum joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Progressive Health Forum calls for increased private sector role in COVID-19 fight

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<p>It was announced this week that Rwanda has been confirmed as the newest host of the secretariat for the East Africa Tourism Platform. The body, which was established back in 2011, has received $250,000 as part of a two year partnership deal with Trademark East Africa to support its operations. So as the struggling tourism industry gears up for a comeback, what’s the next move? CNBC Africa spoke to the DG of the Rwanda Tourism Chamber, Frank Gisha Mugisha for more.</p>


Rwanda to host East Africa Tourism Platform secretariat

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<p>Tanzanian President John Magufuli yesterday tweets about the country’s World Bank middle income status; the Bank of Tanzania’s monthly review for May shows promise for exports and optimism for a speedy economic recovery post Covid-19. Bankable Partner, Ivan Tarimo joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


covid-19

COMMENT: How I grappled with business during COVID-19

COVID-19: Vetiva Capital’s fiscal outlook for Nigeria

COVID-19: Authenticated identity becoming critical as businesses work remotely

Andela looks to double talent pool with Africa expansion

Positive economic growth prospects fuelling Mozambique property rush

East African Breweries CEO shares how the company is responding to the COVID-19 challenges

How businesses in East Africa can adapt and built resilience in the face of COVID-19

Pandemic costs Africa travel, tourism almost $55 billion

Roelof Botha: SA’s construction industry in need of COVID-19 recovery plan, here’s why

Andela goes fully remote in response to COVID-19

Kenyans face 10-year jail term for not reporting bribery under new law

African born Elon Musk tweets: Tesla to make molecule printers for COVID-19 vaccine developer.

COMMENT: How to make money from venture capital in the uncertain world of COVID-19

Crusader Sterling Pensions: How Covid-19 will impact Nigerian pension funds in H2

Progressive Health Forum calls for increased private sector role in COVID-19 fight

Rwanda to host East Africa Tourism Platform secretariat

Tanzania reaches middle income status

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covid-19

COMMENT: How I grappled with business during COVID-19

COVID-19: Vetiva Capital’s fiscal outlook for Nigeria

COVID-19: Authenticated identity becoming critical as businesses work remotely

Andela looks to double talent pool with Africa expansion

Positive economic growth prospects fuelling Mozambique property rush

East African Breweries CEO shares how the company is responding to the COVID-19 challenges

How businesses in East Africa can adapt and built resilience in the face of COVID-19

Pandemic costs Africa travel, tourism almost $55 billion

Roelof Botha: SA’s construction industry in need of COVID-19 recovery plan, here’s why

Andela goes fully remote in response to COVID-19

Kenyans face 10-year jail term for not reporting bribery under new law

African born Elon Musk tweets: Tesla to make molecule printers for COVID-19 vaccine developer.

COMMENT: How to make money from venture capital in the uncertain world of COVID-19

Crusader Sterling Pensions: How Covid-19 will impact Nigerian pension funds in H2

Progressive Health Forum calls for increased private sector role in COVID-19 fight

Rwanda to host East Africa Tourism Platform secretariat

Tanzania reaches middle income status

News Tips

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