to be decisive. The only apparent challenge is that there was contradicting information circulated as mentioned by 39,5% who agree / strongly agree with the statement “There were contradicting information released from diferent sources regarding new COVID-19 contracted cases, deaths and other vital information”. Fortunately, most of the participating African SMEs knew how to deal with safety as shown in the below graph “In my company, we knew exactly how to deal with the safety hazards related to COVID-19” As agreed by 71,7%.
Figure 3.11: In my company, we knew exactly how to deal with the safety hazards related to COVID-19
2- Impact on African SMEs
Rollo traced through its applications and surveys COVID-19 related issues faced by African SMEs. All applicants were requested to fll an online application that includes information about the pre- and post-COVID-19 stature. This part is extracted from 490 applications/businesses.
Nature of the impact
When asked if these SMEs were faced with major changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 92,8% of these startups reported that their businesses were impacted heavily by the pandemic. Whether this impact was positive or negative was further investigated, and the survey revealed that most respondents were faced with a negative COVID-19 impact over their businesses (qualitative data).
Business expenses cuts
The survey reports on some 466 (95,1%) respondents that had to drastically cut their company’s expenses due to the COVID-19 breakout. To highlight the major areas that were targeted
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