Nigerian tech firms have been forced to close their offices and send their workers home to work remotely. This is following a two-week lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun State declared by the government on March 29 to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
A lockdown means potential customers are not earning money and fewer of them will patronise these tech companies. Should the lockdown be extended or the entire country forced to lock down, the story changes from bad to worse for many of the start-ups.
Hence, for many of them, joining the fight to flatten the curve of the spread of the virus was inevitable. Success in stemming the tide is the only chance they have of securing their business and the future of technology in Nigeria.
Start-ups in the trenches
Long before the ecosystem woke up to the seriousness of the virus, LifeBank, a health startup that finds and delivers blood, led by Temie Giwa-Tubosun, its founder, was already mobilising against the pandemic. In early February, two weeks before the first coronavirus case was confirmed in Nigeria, the LifeBank CEO started canvassing for the tracing and quarantine of all travellers from most affected countries.
“All hands need to be on deck! We need to quarantine, trace contacts, and monitor patients! NCDC is already battling Lassa & now needs to respond to this threat! Are we increasing their budget? Have we set up a war room for this? Who is the Corona Tzar? Where will the quarantine be?” she tweeted on February 2.
Days after, Giwa-Tubosun is leading efforts to get more critical medical equipment as well as create a national register to track hospitals with working ventilators and respirators.
“Tell your banks to fund biomedical research centres for the next five years. Tell them to fund a bioengineering school. Tell them to build PPE [personal protective equipment] factories. Tell them to open a latex factory! Tell them to do the hard things,” she said.
LifeBank has partnered with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) to build a mobile testing centre to help expand testing in communities. As of 31 March, less than five days after the idea was conceived, 70 people had already been tested.
Abasi Ene-Obong, CEO of 54gene, an African genomic research services, also has an approach that has proved critical to the fight against the pandemic.
The firm set up a fund to tackle the current challenges around testing for coronavirus and in less than 24 hours it secured $500,000.
54gene opened the fund with a donation of $150,000 and within 24 hours an additional $350,000 was secured from partners including Union Bank.
The genomics research service plans to use the fund to increase the COVID-19 testing capacity in Nigeria by up to 1,000 additional tests a day. To achieve this, the company will buy testing instruments and the required biosafety materials such as biosafety cabinets and personal protective equipment needed to keep frontline healthcare workers safe.
54gene’s intervention is making it possible for Nigeria to scale testing of individuals that may have been exposed to the virus in one form or the other.
While the health start-ups are providing their expertise, Ventures Platform, a venture capital firm, is rallying the rest of the ecosystem. It partnered with the Lagos State Science and Research and Innovation Council (LASRIC) to develop solutions to mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
A challenge (#COVID19InnovationChallenge) it launched to attract start-ups with creative solutions has seen seven firms emerge winners.
For winning the challenge, the startups will receive a $2,000 grant and an opportunity for further funding, as well as access to virtual workspace and mentorship from some of Africa’s top healthcare, business and technology leaders to help scale their company.
The Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) also has a similar challenge. It has partnered with the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to launch a call for innovative communication projects on COVID-19 based on African languages targeted at the semi-urban and rural population across the continent. The communication projects are expected to help counter disbelief and misinformation, catalyse citizens’ actions and solidarity as well as combat stigmatisation.
“This is a critical time where tech in Africa should be used in smart ways to ensure broader citizen awareness and understanding of COVID-19 response strategies and precautions,” Bosun Tijani, CcHUB’s co-founder and CEO, said.
As the days go by and the number of infected persons rises, more and more start-ups are coming out to contribute their widow’s mite with the hope that it will quicken the end of the pandemic. With 24 recovered cases so far, only time will tell.
FRANK ELEANYA
