Policy uncertainty, over-regulation top CEOs’ concerns for Africa growth

While CEOs in other parts of the world recognized COVID-19 as the top threat to their business growth in 2021, CEOs in Africa say the pandemic and other health crises are the least of their worries.

CEOs in the world’s second-largest continent are more concerned about the threat from the perennial challenges of policy and tax uncertainty, over-regulation, and the fast-evolving reality of cyber risk, according to the findings of PwC’s 24th Annual Global CEO Survey released last Thursday.

The proportion of CEOs in Africa extremely concerned about the top 10 threat that did not include COVID-19 was significantly higher than the global average, not just in this year’s survey, but in previous years. Compared with the global average of 34 percent (28% in 2020), 49 percent of CEOs in Africa, up from the 43 percent reported last year, were very concerned.

This likely means that the ease of doing business in Africa has not made much progress as the PwC report shows it is increasingly difficult for CEOs in Africa to successfully run their businesses.