Responding to the business impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)

COVID-19 is causing significant people, social and economic implications for organisations. This page provides information on how your organisation can respond.



The World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 20201, causing huge impact on people’s lives, families and communities.

As the international response continues to develop, we know that organisations are facing significant challenges and need to respond rapidly. We are working closely with organisations and government agencies in Nigeria to help them prepare and respond to the different scenarios emerging from the COVID-19 crisis.


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Six key areas of focus for organisations

Crisis management and response

Existing business continuity plans may not be capable of handling the fast-moving and unknown variables of an outbreak like COVID-19. 

What you can do now: 

  • Develop incident management and scenario plans that are specific to this crisis

  • Focus on factually and effectively communicating to stakeholders

  • Plan on how to meet government priorities in individual countries and minimise the risk of business disruptions

     

     

Workforce

Beyond human welfare, there are other people challenges to tackle, including how to support remote working at scale.

What you can do now: 

  • Attend to immediate global mobility concerns, such as reviewing travel rules, HR policies, first-aid plans

  • Assess remote working strategy, including asking employees to temporarily stop work or work remotely or relocate

  • Address strains on a firm’s existing information technology and communications infrastructure in order to support remote working during the crisis

 

 

 

 

Operations and supply chain

The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are difficult to model and assess, but global businesses can begin to mitigate supply chain distributions. 

What you can do now: 

  • Identify alternative supply chain scenarios — especially as new cases of the virus emerge in different territories

  • Activate pre-approved parts or raw-material substitutions

  • Adapt allocations to customers and pricing strategies

 

 

 

 

Finance and liquidity

Financial markets often watch how companies plan for and respond to events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

What you can do now: 

  • Consider disclosures related to direct effects on the results of operations, as well as second- and third-order effects

  • Think about disclosures related to risks and uncertainties about the impact of COVID-19 on future periods

  • Assess disclosures on the current and future impact on liquidity and capital resources

 

 

 

 

Tax, trade and regulatory

Navigating complexity and risk in today’s global uncertainty takes more than an understanding of tax and regulatory systems. It is critical that tax functions consider the broader economic, political and societal context you operate in, in order to make informed and compliant decisions that drive your operations forward.

What you can do now: 

  • Effectively manage cash taxes, obtain available refunds and consider local government and tax authority measures in response to COVID-19

  • Consider actions to stabilise supply chains while bracing for an unpredictable revenue and profitability mix in key markets

  • Assess the resources your company needs to meet your ongoing indirect and direct tax compliance requirements

  • Explore opportunities focused on becoming more flexible in responding to arising uncertainties

 

Navigate Tax, Legal and Economic Measures in response to COVID-19

 

 

Strategy and brand

As companies move from reacting to mitigating the impact of the outbreak, strategies to emerge stronger may come in focus.

What you can do now: 

  • Consider accelerating digital transformations as the shift to remote working reveals gaps in IT infrastructure, workforce planning and digital upskilling

  • Protect growth and profitability through actions such as scenario planning, more frequent financial modeling exercises to improve resiliency, and new models that incorporate economic impacts of past pandemics

  • Take the pulse of your customers, thinking through longer-term considerations around shifts in core markets or business models as a result of the pandemic

 

 

 

 


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Playing our part. Making a difference...

We are committed to supporting those impacted through our N100m PwC Cares COVID-19 Intervention

 

Our Insights

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PwC Cares sme banner

As part of our PwC Cares COVID-19 intervention we are providing pro bono business continuity support services to small businesses employing between 5 to 50 employees who undertake to retain all their staff during this period.

Click the button below to learn more

Click here to access SME Desk 

References

1. World Health Organization, "WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 11 March 2020," https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020.

Contact us

Sam Abu

Sam Abu

Country and Regional Senior Partner, West Africa, PwC Nigeria

Tel: +2342012711700

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