By Kathy Gibson – The world is currently in an uncertain place as we experience an unprecedented pace of change.
Tola Adayemi, CEO of KPMG One Africa, says business leaders are grappling with volatility, uncertainty, confusion and ambiguity.
“CEOs have to make choices and investment decisions across a wide range of issues,” he points out. “And the lesson in these choices is that they cannot be made in isolation: but must be made in an interconnected manner.
“CEOs have to decide how to allocate capital not only to mitigate risk, but to drive growth at the same time.”
Despite having lived through a tumultuous and upsetting year, businesses are still relatively confident, according to Frank Blackmore, lead economist at KPMG One Africa.
For African CEOs, confidence is still holing, but the earnings test is getting harder, he says.
The KPMG CEO Outlook 2026 shows that confidence in the global economy is at 66% – up 6 percentage points from last year; while confidence in Africa’s economies is also up from last year at 72%.
“It looks like CEOs are getting to grips with the realities,” Blackmore comments.
And recent performance provides ground for optimism, with 86% of African CEOs reporting revenue growth.
But expectations for the future are more restrained: only 58% anticipate annual earnings of more than 2,5% over the next there years. This compares to 68% globally.
The challenge is to get measurable returns through productivity, cost discipline and selective investment, Blackmore explains.
In line with this, Africa CEOs are moving from exposure to operation preparedness.
They identify the biggest threats to organisational growth as cybersecurity and data security (31%), and supply chain resilience (31%). This is followed by integration of AI into operation and geopolitical instability.
To counter these risks, COEs are prioritising cybersecurity and digital risk; resilience; regulatory compliance and reporting; and AI integration into operations and workflows.
Notably, the investment levels presented are far higher than the threat perceptions, Blackmore points out.
“What we can take from that is that the expectation of threats show leaders expect to move from exposure to threats to operation preparedness.”
African CEOs’ top operational priorities to achieving growth are organic growth (18%), customer experience (14%), and digitalisation and connectivity (13%).
Across Africa, confidence is positive across regions but the source of conviction and the execution agenda differ. Southern Africa demonstrates the highest domestic confidence, but supply chain visibility and faster decisions are top priorities.
Blackmore concludes that African CEOs should shift towards a practical model for growth that protects the core, lifts productivity, strengthens customer economics; allocates capital selectively and builds strategic agility .
For boards the challenge is to connect investment to these outcomes:
- Margins based on focus on productivity;
- Continuity following investments in resilience; and
- Speed from focusing on greater agility.