Adapting to the pandemic

“In West Africa, there has effectively not been any impact on revenues, the only significant drawback being the inability to travel; the situation forced us to shift to digital communication platforms and change the way we interact and make decisions. To manage operations from abroad is challenging, but, as a plus, our subsidiaries have gained considerable autonomy during this time.”

Stéphane Cervellera, Western Africa Manager, Titanobel

“2020 has been a challenging year for Maxam, yet we have managed to use our extensive network and infrastructure in Africa to cope with the pandemic and embrace new perspectives.”

Bernard Kaninda, Africa Regional Director, MAXAM

“We should learn from the pandemic to strive more towards integration and equality. More humility, I believe, is also important: the world expected that Africa would be devastated if hit by the virus, but Africa has been able to control the situation well so far.”

Serigne Ndanck Mbaye, CEO West Africa & Country Head Ghana, DHL

“Cypher Environmental was labeled an essential businesses and therefore we were able to keep our doors open during these months. From the beginning, we were methodical in sending our staff to work from home while also supporting our front-liners who work in production and labs. Since June, our entire team has been able to return to the office.”

Todd Burns, President, Cypher Environmental

“The events of the past months have helped us improve our efficiency by taking advantage of the communication tools available, tools which we simply did not fully utilize before. We replaced physical travel with remote B2B digital communication, realizing that about 60% of the trips we were doing before were probably unnecessary.”

Martin van Gemert, Managing Director, Mincon West Africa

“We usually accompany our clients on their business trips, so the halt in international travelling has taken a toll on the work we do. Nevertheless, Geni and Kebe stayed very active especially in helping clients navigate the legal provisions in cases of restructuring and staff layoffs.”

Mouhamed Kebe, Partner, Geni and Kebe

“At NB Mining, we needed to put our workforce of 150-160 people on stand-by, but we did not make any redundancies. If we do not sustain our highest efficiency to run sustainable margins, we will not be able to pay our workers, so everyone understands the importance of efficiency in the business.”

Samuel Opare, Managing Director, NB Mining

“Throughout these months, we have redirected our focus on both strengthening internal training, as well as offering external training. Our service offering has shifted mostly to a lobbying and representative role for mining companies making lease applications and who require additional consultancy.”

Eric Kondo, Managing Partner, MS&C (Mining Services and Consulting)