Business Continuity Management in a Time of Crisis: Emerging Trends for Commercial Banks in Zimbabwe during and Post the Covid-19 Global Crisis

Abstract

Covid-19 has presented severe and increasingly complicated challenges which confront the very survival of banks in Zimbabwe. The urgency and relevance of business continuity management (BCM) to alleviate potential risks and quicken recovery remain important. While there is proliferation of literature on the impact of Covid-19 on businesses across the globe, there is little known about BCM strategies among Zimbabwean banks under Covid-19 conditions. This paper focuses on emerging trends in BCM approaches in the commercial banking sector in Zimbabwe and seeks to establish if existing BCM models provide an adequate response to the risks posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, establish strategies adopted by commercial banks in Zimbabwe to ensure an adequate response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and to establish the likely implications of these strategies on the future of BCM in Zimbabwean commercial banks. Using a qualitative research approach, this paper concluded that existing BCM models among banks in Zimbabwe are not sufficient and are changing towards building permanent models with capacity to anticipate “surprises”.