Reimagining business after the pandemic 

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OVER the past year and a half, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned our lives upside down. We have lost colleagues, friends and family. Our routines have been unsettled. Life is just no longer what we were used to. On the business side of things, supply chains have been disrupted and, in some instances, entire businesses have folded.
The carnage has been particularly gory in the tourism and hospitality sector, which, according to the government, lost northwards of 90 percent of potential revenues in 2020, as governments-imposed lockdowns and restricted travel.

In normal times, the tourism industry generates at least US$1,25 billion making it one of the country’s top foreign currency earners.
The lockdowns might have been lifted and business opened up (below full capacity), but it is certainly going to take some time for us to genuinely fathom the sheer extent of damage the pandemic has caused.

It has been a time of sheer uncertainty reminiscent of, if not worse than, the global financial crisis of 2008, yet the challenges of this period might also be the single largest push for us to innovate and build stronger resilient institutions.

The pandemic has forced consumer tastes to evolve and with them, so too do the channels of delivery. The competition has gotten more agile and data has emerged as king. With all these changes taking place, this demands of us to reimagine, at breakneck speed, our role in the new world. Businesses and government institutions can act decisively to unlock the next stage of the country’s digital transformation.

The future is digital 
The future is digital and there is no way around that. Those that adopt digital technologies first will be ahead of the pack and those that drag their feet will be left to lick their wounds.
On the local banking scene, we have already started to see the emergence of “digital-first” operating models as lenders resize their branch networks. According to CBZ chairman Marc Holtzman, “the move to digitize ahead of the pandemic was very fruitful”.

For BancABC Covid-19 was the real Chief Digital Officer.
“The pandemic has also given us an opportunity to introspect and confront the reality of a new normal and our capabilities to adapt our business model to a new reality. We have used the crisis to accelerate our digital transformation and adoption of the online working environment, product innovation and partnership formation,” the bank’s managing director, Lance Mambonidyani said.

So going forward it is evident that there is a need to shift approaches—for example, by putting increased focus on digital service delivery channels. Expand online presence and broaden digital offerings.

Businesses must move fast to meet customers’ increased appetite for digital offerings and at the same time look for ways to reduce cost and improve productivity—both during the downturn and in the recovery.
This drive towards digitisation by large corporations will also present an opportunity for technology companies as demand for their services grows.

Reimagining the role of government in a digital world

Going forward, the government as a regulator and active consumer would have to play a more active role in fostering an enabling environment for rapid digitisation. So this means that other than ensuring that all key enablers are in place to support digital adoption, such as making sure that data is affordable, the government should bring the public sector into the digital age.
The government can step up provision of digital services and information, and harness digital tools to collect, manage, and use data to inform decision making. They can also enable digitisation in society and the economy by using the crisis as a spur to accelerate the rollout of digital IDs, signatures, and registries.

To support broader digitisation, major infrastructure expansion will be required, including those in backbone networks and last-mile connectivity, as well as electricity supply. As Lacina Kone noted: “How digitised Africa is depends on how digitized our infrastructure is—it’s not rocket science.”
It is estimated that governments, development finance institutions, companies, and investors will need to spend $100 billion on key ICT infrastructure by 2030 to achieve universal broadband access— including 250 000 new 4G base stations and 250 000km of fiber cable.

As a country we need a workforce equipped for the post-Covid-19 “next normal,” in which digital skills will be at the core of many occupations. The government can ensure that training infrastructure is in place for both basic skills, like mobile transactions, and advanced ones, such as coding and graphic design.

Positioning for regional trade 

In the longer run, local companies must take advantage of opportunities in intra-African trade and global supply-chain realignments spurred by the crisis.
“This crisis has shown that globalization may have led us to over-rely on global supply chains. There will be a big re-think worldwide—not just because of politics, but also because of countries’ ability to meet their basic needs,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finance Minister of Nigeria and one of the African Union’s Covid-19 Special Envoys, said recently.

According to a McKinsey study, for every dollar of manufactured product, Africa imports approximately 40 cents in inputs from outside the continent—higher than most regions in the world.
Over five years, a serious push to reduce reliance on global supply chains could add an initial $10–20 billion to the continent’s manufacturing output if 5 to 10 percent of imported intermediate goods can be produced within the region.

As companies globally rethink their supply chains, opportunities for Zimbabwean firms to reposition themselves abound.
To unlock these opportunities, governments and private-sector partners can focus on accelerating implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area and improving the business environment.