How Africa's economies are withstanding Coronavirus

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many African countries have been praised for waging effective campaigns against coronavirus, and the region has a relatively low case count compared to Europe and the US. African economies have likewise been hit less hard, and Amandla Ooko-Ombaka of McKinsey and Company explains how a mix of a youthful population, hot climate and swift government response helped many of these economies stay resilient. But Lisa Owino, of the Kenyan human rights organisation KELIN, says in some cases government intervention over-stepped and was overly punitive to ordinary people. And Tosin Eniolorunda, founder & Chief Executive of Nigerian financial services company TeamApt says digital finance tools helped people maintain social distancing while conducting business.

(Picture: Kenyans walk past a mural about the Coronavirus in Nairobi. Picture credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Tamerson Ford. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Why hasn't the coronavirus pandemic hit Africa as hard as Europe and North America?
0:13.3	The outlook for growth across Africa was much higher than anywhere else in the world's exception of some countries in Asia before coming into the crisis.
0:21.9	So the higher base, I think, allowed us to weather some of the economic shocks of the crisis
0:26.4	better. But also, countries in Africa took much swifter and more severe action, some of which
0:33.3	has been criticised too. I'd be remiss not to start by saying it's actually crazy or counterintuitive for the Kenyan government
0:43.1	to actually adapt a punitive approach because we have seen this in the HIV pandemic, in the TB epidemic
0:49.1	in Kenya, that punitive approaches do not work in public health.
0:54.0	We find out how coronavirus has impacted Africa in business. that punitive approaches do not work in public health.
0:59.8	We find out how coronavirus has impacted Africa in Business Daily from the BBC.
1:06.0	I, Dr. Mukwez, Eric Kavitsumassiz.
1:12.2	President of the Republic of Botswana, do hereby declare that a state of public emergency shall exist for amongst others securing the public safety and the defense of the Republic.
1:16.8	Fellow Ghanaians, prevailing circumstances, mean the stricter measures have to be put in place
1:23.3	to contain and halt the spread of the virus within our country.
1:32.2	This is a decisive measure to save lives of South Africans from infection and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of our people.
1:37.2	As this pandemic sweeps through the nations of the world,
1:40.6	our country Kenya has not been spared
1:42.4	and never has the national interests been threatened to this extent in the world. Our country Kenya has not been spared and never has the national interests been threatened
1:45.7	to this extent in the history of our young nation.
1:50.0	Lockdowns swept across Africa in March when reported cases of coronavirus began trickling in.
1:56.6	But there were very few deaths. In Europe and North America, deaths were being reported in double
2:02.2	figures before any action was taken. Fast forward more than six months and most of Europe and
2:08.5	North America are in some sort of lockdown again. Economists warn Europe is slipping towards
	...

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