Businesses appear to have acclimatised to the disruptions of Covid-19, despite the ravaging impact of the pandemic on economies across the globe.
The level of the pandemic’s threat on businesses is significantly less compared to the previous year, according to a report by global financial services company Allianz.
While Kenya and the rest of the world are still navigating through the pandemic with notable small wins dotting the journey back to normalcy, it would have been anticipated that the pandemic would be high in the list of risks for businesses.
This is considering that some businesses, such as those in the tourism sector, are yet to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic. READ MORE
However, the Allianz Risk Barometer 2022 says the threat of pandemic outbreaks that result to workforce issues and restrictions on movement is ranked fourth, significantly lower than last year when it was second.
Cyber, business interruption and natural disasters are the other top three business risks globally in 2022, according to the survey by Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty.
Most mentioned
The report lists 10 risks with cyber threats leading with 44 per cent while pandemic outbreaks such as Covid-19 was viewed as a risk by 22 per cent of the respondents.
In the previous 2021 report, pandemic outbreak was the second most mentioned risk while cyber security was third most mentioned. The leading threat then was business interruption.
The drop in pandemic risk level this year is largely because businesses are confident in their ongoing contingency plans and future preparation, the report says.
It, however, warns that future ‘black swan’ events such as the Covid-19 pandemic are likely to come from other sources.“As the emergence of the Omicron variant at the end of 2021 demonstrates only too well, pandemic-related problems are far from being a thing of the past and are likely to overshadow business’ ability to perform in at least the first few months of 2022 due to ongoing restrictions and potential staff shortages and absences,” the Allianz report says.Still, many businesses feel they have adapted well to the pandemic. The report reveals that when the respondents were asked how ready their company is for a future event, 80 per cent said they are “adequately” or “well” prepared.Nine per cent could confidently say they are “very well prepared”.“However, just 11 per cent feel inadequately prepared,” the report says.Initiating or improving business continuity management is the main action companies […]