Digitalisation: what’s needed in business responses to Covid-19 in MENA

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The pandemic caused severe disruptions to the global business environment. This column reports evidence on how different sectors in the Middle East and North Africa have been responding. The focus is particularly on firms’ adoption of digital technologies, as well as policies that might encourage greater digitalisation as an essential business strategy to mitigate the consequences of Covid-19 for the economy.

In a nutshell

To facilitate the adoption of digital technologies in MENA countries, policy-makers need to facilitate internet access to all businesses at competitive prices.

Businesses should be encouraged to move towards full digital transformation by granting subsidies and tax breaks; these concessions should be granted to the firms that invest extensively in localising and diffusing digital technologies.

Serious initiatives must be taken to reform education in the region, notably changing the curriculum in what that bridges the existing digital divide among the population.

The outbreak of Covid-19 was a global health crisis that led to severe disruptions to the business environment worldwide. Indeed, the containment measures adopted to control the pandemic’s spread – such as closing businesses, implementing social distancing and restricting mobility – resulted in destructive consequences for the business sector.

Among all the precautionary strategies aimed at absorbing the business shock induced by the pandemic – including changing business models and developing new products – digital solutions, such as using smartphone applications and telephone marketing, have emerged as one of the most frequently implemented strategies (Seetharaman, 2020; Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020; Dwivedi et al, 2020; Priyono et al, 2020).

During the pandemic, use of digital technologies increased remarkably in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by individuals, governments and businesses (World Bank, 2020). But the process of digital transformation in the business sector is expected to confront many challenges due to comparatively weak access to digital technologies (Göll and Zwiers, 2019; UNDP, 2016; ESCWA, 2015).

Recent statistics show that most firms in the region have been slow in adopting digital technologies, remain highly uncertain about the economic recovery and are exposed to a great drop in demand (World Bank, 2020). In addition, the dominance of the digital divide would have serious consequences for the region’s economy, especially with the successive waves of the pandemic.

Therefore, understanding whether the business sector in MENA benefited from digitalisation during the pandemic would support efforts to maximise the responsiveness of the business sector to the pandemic-induced troubles.

Based on micro data collected from 5,480 firms surveyed by the ILO/ERF COVID-19 MENA Monitor Enterprise Survey (CMMENT) in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, our empirical study shows that about half (49%) of the firms covered by the survey have adopted digital technologies to cope with the troubles caused by the pandemic (Ali and Ebaidalla, 2022).

The results also show that a third of the firms have invested in digital technologies. This outcome implies that digitalisation acts as a crucial business strategy to mitigate the pandemic-induced effects. This may also indicate that the pandemic pushed a considerable portion of the firms in the region to adopt and invest in digitalisation as a survival business strategy during the lockdown period to keep businesses open and avoid permanent shutdown.

Moreover, the results reveal that most of the firms that were investing in digitalisation were operating in the services and retail sectors. Manufacturing firms rank second in adopting and investing in digital technologies (Ali and Ebaidalla, 2022).

These results imply that the wave of digital transformation was intensified in services and retail, both of which were the most affected sectors by the troubled business environment created by the pandemic. This confirms the global statistics, as service activities such as accommodation and tourism were the most hit sectors during the first wave of the pandemic (UNWTO, 2020).

Undoubtedly, the MENA region was not an exception, as tourist arrivals in the Middle East, for example, dropped by 69% between January and August 2020 (Gössling et al, 2020). The results also indicate that firms adopting digitalisation confront business difficulties due to the pandemic such as mobility restrictions, low demand and sales reductions.

This implies that difficulties induced by the pandemic were a key driver for adoption of digital technologies to keep businesses open. Specifically, more than 70% of the firms adopting digital solutions in the surveyed countries have arranged workplaces so that staff can maintain a safe distance (Ali and Ebaidalla, 2022).

Furthermore, a considerable segment of the digitalised firms adopted product modification in response to the pandemic. Overall, the unfavourable business conditions induced by Covid-19 acted as a crucial factor in pushing firms to adopt digital solutions.

Finally, our study reveals that characteristics of firms, including size and foreign ownership, accelerate digital transformation in the business sector. Furthermore, firms encountering challenges in complying with pandemic containment measures but receiving government support are more likely to invest in digital technologies (Ali and Ebaidalla, 2022).

Based on our findings, we propose several policy recommendations to facilitate the adoption of digital technologies in MENA countries. First, policy-makers in the region need to facilitate internet access to all businesses at competitive prices.

Second, businesses should be encouraged to move towards full digital transformation by granting subsidies, a preferential tax cut and tax breaks. These concessions should be granted to the firms that invest extensively in localising and diffusing digital technologies. Taking such a step is likely to enhance digital adoption and build an effective precaution for future pandemics.

Third, governments in MENA countries should reduce the digital gap by encouraging foreign direct investment in the digital sector. The presence of such investments would generate huge benefits. For example, local investors will copy the digital practices brought in by foreign investors and then implement them in their own firms. Moreover, the competitive environment created by the presence of foreign companies motivates local enterprises to keep pace with new developments, especially in the field of digital technologies.

Finally, serious initiatives must be taken to reform education in the region. Specifically, the educational curriculum must be reformed in a manner that bridges the existing digital divide among the population.

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