Coronavirus: 50% American Chamber of Commerce firms severely impacted

50% of businesses within the American Chamber of Commerce Ghana community have had their operations severely impacted by the coronavirus outbreak in Ghana.

That’s according to a survey carried out by the American Chamber of Commerce Ghana on the ‘Impact of COVID-19 on Businesses’.

On the other hand, 30% said they experienced a less severe impact with the remaining 20% experiencing a minimal impact of the virus on their business.

According to the report, 85% of businesses within the community would have their supply chain disrupted should movements of people be further restricted.

Revenues for companies will also take a hit as a result of the outbreak. 40% of companies expect an over 40% downturn in revenue.

30% however expect between 11 and 20 percent downturn, and 20% of the companies expect between 1 and 10% fall in revenue.

On the other hand, some companies expect to make gains as a result of the pandemic with 10% of companies within the community expecting an upturn in revenue.

Importantly, 90% of businesses indicated that the outbreak is affecting the performance of employees.

On preparedness of business towards pandemics, most businesses had no formal Disease Outbreak Response Plan to ensure essential business functions would not be interrupted in case of an outbreak.

Only 35% of companies had a plan in place to deal with fallouts from outbreaks such as the COVID-19.

But, 73.3%of the companies now intend to establish protocols and other measures to ensure continuity of business in times of crisis.

Some of the over 120 members of American Chamber of Commerce Ghana that took part in the survey include Newmont Ghana, Citi Bank and Delta Airlines.