Two-third or 62 per cent of African companies say they are struggling but will survive the COVID-19 crisis, according to a survey conducted by Africa Business Panel.
The report, however, indicated that about six per cent of African business professionals did not expect the companies where they work to survive the crisis.
Almost a third or 29 per cent of companies said they were doing well and the near future was looking good.
The survey further revealed that one in 25 African companies or four per cent was doing better than ever due to the crisis.
However, the result showed that there were significant differences between countries.
In South Africa, according to the report, no less than 10 per cent of participants working for companies are optimistic and do not expect their company to outlive the COVID-19 crisis.
On the other end of the spectrum is Ghana, where only three per cent of participants feared the company they work for would not survive the crisis.
At the same time, Ghanaian companies are least able to take advantage of the crisis; none of the Ghanaian participants felt that their company was thriving due to the crisis.
In North Africa, nine per cent of the companies were doing better than ever due to the crisis, by far the highest score in Africa, while South Africa came in second, having a score of five per cent, said the report.
According to the survey, the hardest blow is expected by the smaller enterprises, where 12 per cent of self-employed Africans expect not to survive the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.
The larger the company, the better the chances, of companies with over 250 employees, only three per cent predict their companies’ folding up.
Companies with over 250 employees also had the highest score of five per cent for doing better than ever due to the crisis.
As compared to manufacturing and services, trade had the worst outlook, indicating that 10 per cent of African trading companies did not expect to survive the crisis versus six per cent for manufacturing and five per cent for services.
While 24 per cent of African trade companies were doing fine or better than ever, this compared with 31 per cent for both manufacturing and services.
