East Africa Business Recovery Strategy On the Cards

By Zephania Ubwani

Arusha — A study on post-Covid-19 recovery strategy for businesses in the East African region is on cards.

It will inform business entities on rebound strategies that would enable them to recover from the

pandemic's devastating impact.

"Necessary measures to ensure businesses remain afloat will be suggested," said the East African Business Council (EABC).

The study, to be commissioned by EABC, coincides with the easing of travel restrictions earlier imposed to curb spread of the virus. The apex body of private sector associations believes that, despite the devastation, the region can still navigate out of the adverse impacts of Covid-19.

For the East African Community (EAC) region, the most noticeable impact of the pandemic has been on tourism and tourism-related sectors.

This followed the imposition of travel restrictions by tourist source countries affected by the virus. Also, some EAC countries suspended air travel to and from Asia, a fast-growing tourists source market.

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Air travel restrictions not only impacted the hospitality industry - a leading forex earner for EAC - but also fresh produce exports.

However, EABC insists there were ample opportunities for the EAC to diversify its markets and production lines amidst the pandemic.

"This is not limited to the manufacture of PPEs (personal protection equipment)," EABC executive director Peter Mathuki said in a statement.

Recently, an international consultancy estimated that the five EAC partner states would lose more than $5 billion in agricultural exports this year.

McKinsey & Co named the countries as Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda - and that the drop would be due to the Covid-19 malady.

The proposed recovery strategy would focus on tourism, manufacturing, agriculture, transportation and logistics.

An earlier survey indicated that over 40 percent of the businesses in EA were uncertain of their business continuity six months after the spread of Covid-19 into the region.

About 30 percent of the enterprises said their businesses may be sustained for between six months and one year.

Only about eleven per cent of businesses said their enterprises would be sustainable for one-to-two years if the pandemic continued at the speed it started.

Also, Tanzania says that, despite earlier projections, there will be no massive drop in tourist arrivals in the country due to Covid-19.

Industry players say the country is likely to register between 900,000 and one million tourists this year.

"The situation for 2020 is not as alarming as it was first projected," the permanent secretary in the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr Aloyce Nzuki, said in Arusha last week. He said projections were that the number of tourists coming to Tanzania would only drop by half - to around 900,000 to one million in 2020.

Until last year, the number of foreign tourists to Tanzania had climbed to between 1.5 million and 1.8 million.

Initially - before the outbreak of Covid 19 - it was projected that tourist arrivals would reach two million this year, earning the economy over $2.5 billion.