Issued on: 27 MARCH 2020
Yacoub Sidya
Yacoub Sidya is the CEO of MSS Security, a private security company operating in Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.
“Most of our customers are international companies. All of them shut down operations and sent everyone home. Therefore, we had scaled down by 85%.
“The impact is inevitable for economies around the world. We’re bracing for a recession like all other regions. The biggest hit will be service providers. African leaders must really consider and deeply understand the private sector’s challenges when making the difficult decision to lock down cities and countries. A solution could be to tier business categories into ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’.
“Providing secure services such as armoured vehicles, guards and executive transport are obviously essential, so there could be tiers of mandates allowing specific departments of companies like ours to still serve. It is time to really live our company mission now more than ever – to serve, provide jobs and elevate the livelihoods of our communities.”
