I have to start this column off with an apology to my readers who have not seen the column appear regularly over the past month. I did not plan to contract COVID-19 at the start of the year, but the surprise of testing positive was nothing compared to the extreme displeasure that nasty little ailment can induce into one ‘s life. I like to joke with my friends that COVID-19 is like a toddler trying to stab you to death with a plastic knife – it most likely won’t kill you, but by the hosts of heaven it will try.
I have had my fair share of nasty ailments over the years, but few things have come close to COVID-19 in terms of the sheer amount of irritation it causes. Under these circumstances, keeping up with the strict deadlines involved in writing this column was practically impossible. However the worst is in the past now and having finally tested negative last week, it is time to resume here while dealing with the protracted fallout including lungs that seem to be permanently 25 percent full of thick liquid.
It never came close to offing me – indeed I tweeted my merry way through it as if all was well – but it did make me understand why under certain circumstances, it could be lethal. To the frail and elderly or those with asthma, bronchitis or other respiratory or immune conditions, the terrifying experience of waking up from sleep struggling to breathe as the throat completely closes up under an unbelievably thick layer of mucus could well be fatal. To millions of Africans living with immunosuppressive or respiratory conditions unknown to them, that makes vaccination against this virus potentially a matter of life and death, and this is where the continent’s organised private sector is needed to put on its hero cape and step in for a once-in-a-generation intervention.
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Unlike “palliatives”, the paradigm has shifted
When the pandemic first hit Nigeria in 2020, the country’s organised private sector under the Coalition Against COVID (CACOVID) chipped in with efforts to provide palliative items to Nigerians economically displaced by the outcome of the 4-week nationwide total lockdown. The results of that particular experiment later became the subject of many column inches and pop culture references as the word “palliative” became synonymous with duplicity and insincerity of government.
It is important that the African private sector steps into the gap for Africa’s underpowered states to plug the funding gap and put the continent back to work.
From the perspective of Johnny Everyman, where that partnership failed like many others before it was that it centred the Nigerian government and tied the efforts of the CACOVID brand to the ability or willingness of the Nigerian state to carry out the sort of logistical operation it is not really optimised for. Whereas the facts of the matter state that CACOVID was actually a massive success and a statement of the private sector’s commitment to Nigeria, in the public’s mind, “CACOVID” and “palliative” are forever associated with images of warehouse looting and lawlessness.
This is where an unfolding example from one of Nigeria’s largest corporate organisations has taken an interesting left turn from the “palliative” model of 2020. MTN recently announced that it has donated $25 million to support the African Union’s COVID-19 vaccination programme.
According to the announcement, the donation was intended to secure up to 7
million vaccine doses specifically meant for health workers across the
continent under the auspices of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
To understand why this is interesting, it is important to look at the institution that this donation is being routed through. Africa CDC is a supranational parastatal of the African Union whose working brief is to build Africa’s public health capacity via institutional partnerships and drive effective, data-driven responses. By partnering with Africa CDC, MTN’s gesture effectively recognises that the ongoing vaccination effort must be coordinated and pan-continental, as against fragmented and haphazard
Buttressing this point while speaking about the partnership recently, Africa CCDC Director, John Nkengasong said, “Our goal is to ensure that all those who need the COVID-19 vaccine have access to it very quickly, but the biggest hurdle in Africa has been the financing of the vaccines, and the logistics of vaccinating at scale. We, therefore, welcome the right partnerships, like the one with MTN, to achieve our minimum 60 percent vaccination target.”
Importance of the new paradigm
On January 14, AU Chair and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed that through various schemes such as the COVAX alliance, the AU has provisionally secured 270 million vaccine doses from vaccine manufacturers via the Africa EXIM Bank. This means that at present, Africa has only secured enough doses to vaccinate roughly 21 percent of its population – well behind the 60 percent needed to attain herd immunity.
To put that in perspective, the UK for example has already secured over 100 million vaccine doses – more than enough to cover its 67 million people. This could have the effect of permitting richer countries to fully open up production supply chains and travel routes while Africa would effectively be economically estranged from the world until possibly as late as 2024 – further entrenching the already yawning economic gap.
To prevent this from happening, it is important that the African private sector steps into the gap for Africa’s underpowered states to plug the funding gap and put the continent back to work. MTN’s partnership with the AU shows how this can be done at a continental level which has the double advantage of helping the continent’s vaccination drive through one centrally coordinated entity and also shielding the reputation of the corporates involved from potential damage if on-ground execution drive fails as it did during the infamous “palliative” saga.
President and CEO of MTN Group, Ralph Mupita summed up this argument recently while giving his thoughts on the AU partnership. He said: “Public and private partnerships are needed if we are to succeed in the fight against the pandemic and restore social and economic norms for our continent and our communities. We believe ongoing collaborations with key stakeholders across sectors are essential as vaccines are deployed in all our markets, with communication tools, technology and digital services being vital support infrastructure for a successful mass vaccination programme.”
With any luck, the work that Africa CDC is doing will spare many hundreds of thousands of Africans from having to experience what I went through last month on the road to developing my (unreliable and unexpected) brute force immunity. COVID-19 may be the toddler unsuccessfully trying to kill everyone with a plastic knife, but it sure as heck does not look like it will stop trying until we overpower it.
