African innovators keep COVID-hit economies afloat
ROME/WASHINGTON/HARARE: Ghanaian pilot Eric Acquah started a drone company in 2017 to spray crops with pesticides, but when coronavirus hit the West African country he found a new mission - saving lives. The company has used 20 drones to disinfect about 38 open-air markets in Ghana, spraying a couple of acres in minutes, a job that would take a dozen people several hours, and there are now also plans to use them to disinfect classrooms, said Acquah.
“We targeted the market areas because in Africa they are open-air and always overpopulated. So we thought if the virus is going to spread fast it will be from them,” said Acquah, who was paid by local authorities to spray the markets. “Just closing the borders and quarantining the whole country wouldn’t make sense unless there is a mass disinfection of places where people gather in larger numbers,” the founder of AcquahMeyer Drone Tech told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The markets have since re-opened, with everyone wearing masks and social distancing, and traders and buyers said they felt safer, said Acquah, who is lobbying private donors for funds to disinfect other public areas - at about $15 per acre. Acquah is just one of a host of African innovators helping poor households adapt to and survive the pandemic which has so far infected more than 416,000 people in Africa with more than 11,300 deaths, according to a Reuters tally
based on government statistics and WHO data. As job losses mount and incomes plunge due to coronavirus lockdowns and border closures, many African countries risk spikes in poverty and hunger, food experts have warned.
Innovation
In Benin, a dozen entrepreneurs are developing ideas to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, from masks to 3D-printed protective gear, with financial and technical support from a government-United Nations taskforce launched in April. “Because it hasn’t been easy to import goods into the country, we have to take a hard look at what we can produce locally,” said Claude Bona, head of Seme City, the government’s innovation and entrepreneurship center, coleading the project.
“I think people are slowly taking measure of what’s happening here in Africa with innovation, and how it can be a very powerful tool.” Atingan is one start-up which received backing from the taskforce to adapt to the crisis, switching from making eco-friendly stoves to handwashing stations operated by pedals so users do not have to touch anything.
They have sold more than 600 units for about $100 each to clients that include the United Nations, said Franck Zanhoundaho, who founded the company with his brother. “All of the artisans, all the welders in the country have started to make them,” he said, adding that the simple medal frame is easily replicable, and that they have shared the design to encourage wider production.
The production of handwashing stations has enabled the small company to survive the crisis, he added.
The Alodo Initiative - a group of fashion designers - is another project receiving support from the taskforce to rapidly scale up its work, both to bolster the fight against COVID-19 and minimize its negative economic impact. It is producing masks from locally available fabrics, which were tested in a lab to ensure their effectiveness in preventing coronavirus transmission. They have sold millions, some of which the government bought to distribute in schools.
“The textile sector often takes a hit when there is an economic crisis. And it’s a sector that employs a lot of workers,” said Charlemagne Amoussou, President of the Association of Fashion Designers of Benin. “This local production breathed life into the textile sector in Benin, and I think that almost all the tailors, all the designers had work.” Digital
With coronavirus cases still rising in Africa, digital networks have proven crucial in keeping economic activity going. As disease-wary customers shun open-air markets, food sellers using Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have seen a surge in demand, said Rumbidzai Mbambo, 27, founder of Quickfresh, one of the newest Zimbabwean online grocery start-ups.