By Dayo Emmanuel
Telecoms is the best performing stock in Africa despite COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world.
Former Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News, Matt Winkler disclosed this on Tuesday while facilitating a session with the Alumni of Bloomberg Media Initiative for Africa (BMIA), a financial journalism training sponsored by former Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg.
During the webinar that attracted participants from across Africa where journalists who had gone through the BMIA training on Financial Journalism are based, the facilitator said, “With available data, telecoms is the business that is doing the best while the best performing industry is healthcare which gained 9%.”
The co-author of The Bloomberg Way, a training manual for financial journalists, said there is a bright future for the African continent after the global pandemic.
Comparing African cases of COVID-19 with the United States, he said Africa is largely isolated from the global pandemic and is not doing badly economically during the pandemic that has stressed the world.
He said Africa with 54 countries has fewer COVID-19 cases than most other countries making the continent safer that the rest of the world.
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In his presentation, he said six of the top 10 growth economies are in Africa including Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt and Ghana.
On the feat of the telecoms industry, the facilitator said during the lockdown, “It won’t be surprising that so many people will be dependent on telecommunication,” which is a major factor why the sector is doing better.
He, however, noted with available data that, “Telecommunication industry in Africa is encouraging than it has ever been and that has not changed.”
Going by the available data, one of the worst-hit sectors is the aviation sector.
According to Winkler, “Business travel is constrained. There is big money in business travel and if the business sector is weak, it must affect the aviation industry like it is doing now.”
Meanwhile, hope is not lost as the American journalist reminded the participants that Africa is still a destination to a lot of people around the world.
“So I’ll expect the aviation industry in Africa will have a rebound once the pandemic is over.”
