THESE ARE THE TOP RISKS OF DOING BUSINESS AROUND THE WORLD. 

According to findings publish today in the first edition of the new regional risk for doing business report, over 12,000 people who own businesses operating in more than 140 sectors are of the opinion that unemployment and underemployment represent the biggest risk for doing business around the world. 

The second biggest risk is ‘failure of national governance’. 

The findings should ring alarm bells. At a time when the world is often distracted by the latest twist and turns and odd accelerating news cycles, they provide cautionary evidence of weaknesses in the foundations of our political and economic system. The world economic forum has been analysing risks at the global level since 2006 in its annual global risk report, highlighting the vulnerability of our increasingly networked and interconnected world to vitality and disruption. But even the most global of risk crystallize locally and are experienced differently. 

Global risk demands our attention because they entail harm to the lives and livelihoods of particular people in particular places. These particularities cut across several dimensions, from wealth and nationality to gender and profession. 

The underlying significance of the unemployment risk need to be cautiously interpreted, as it may reflect quite different challenges across countries, such as weak growth, talent shortages or labour market disruptions caused by automation. Most sub –Saharan African countries faces the profound challenges of creating enough jobs to meet the needs of the working – age population that is expected to double to 1. 6 billion by 2050. 

By Khadijah Yakubu Abdullahi.