African leaders are becoming more and more concerned about the risks of doing business on the continent.
As a result, IT disaster recovery and business recovery planning, as well as crisis management, are starting to form part of the African business agenda.
A recent KPMG business continuity management (BCM) survey, entitled "Business Continuity Management in Africa: Building resilience in a volatile environment", reveals that African organisations are worried about everything from critical infrastructure disruptions and corruption, to cyber attacks and fire dangers.
According to the survey, which was conducted in 18 African countries in 2013, almost two thirds of respondents have a BCM programme in place, while some 27% implemented their BCM programmes more than five years ago. Additionally, the survey noted that those in charge of BCM programmes typically held high management positions and were responsible for implementation in about 50% of the organisations. Only 26% of organisations have a business continuity director, and, in most cases, the role is assumed by someone serving another function, according to the survey.
"As business markets become increasingly more complex and competitive, to build on the opportunities and succeed, companies doing business in Africa need to consider internal, regional and global risks and build resilience to a volatile environment," says Moses Kgosana, chairman and senior partner at KPMG Africa. "Africa's fast economic growth has highlighted the need to pay more attention to risk management and, ultimately, to business continuity management as a corporate discipline."
Immature market
Business continuity has not reached a state of maturity, the survey found. In addition, it revealed that BCM standards adoption is low, with 61% of organisations across Africa not following a BCM standard to support the implementation of their programmes. The survey also found that most organisations do not have crisis management or business recovery plans, nor do they perform regular tests, reviews or updates.
"We have found that many organisations in Africa either have not implemented the majority of the BCM components, or have not reviewed them in the last three years," says Cristina Alberto, head of business continuity services at KPMG Angola and author of the report. "These businesses, for instance, don't perform business impact analysis to identify critical business processes and adequate recovery strategies, or have performed it so long ago that it does not cover recent business changes."
For Alberto, business continuity should be a priority now more than ever. "The only way to minimise risk and uncertainty is to be prepared to respond to a disruptive incident while keeping the business running."
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