Covid-19 is pushing SubSaharan Africa’s leading economies back into poverty, according to the results of GeoPoll’s six-nation survey on the financial and social impact of the pandemic across the continent.

The poll of 2,400 respondents in South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Kenya found rising unemployment, further falls in incomes, drastic cuts in spending on essential and non-essential items, and mounting concern over meeting  bills in the three months ahead.

“The picture that emerges is of a further sharp deterioration in the financial position of many individual Africans in the first quarter of 2021,” said Scott Lansell, GeoPoll’s VP – International Development.

The poll, which was conducted from March 24^th to April 12^th, found two-thirds of respondents, at 66 per cent, reporting that their income had fallen since January 2021, with 42 per cent saying it had fallen by a lot. This …

If the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa that was recently adopted by the African Union is anything to go by, only few member states have strong regulatory authorities with the functions necessary to oversee the pharmaceutical markets.

Africa represents 14% of the world’s population, however, it only contributes to less than 0.1 per cent of world’s vaccine. According to data by the World Health Organisation, (WHO) there are fewer than 10 African manufacturers with vaccine production. These are based in five countries namely Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. There is very limited upstream production with most local companies only engaging in packaging and labelling, and occasionally fill and finish steps. Noteworthy, there are about 80 sterile injectables facilities on the continent, which may provide an opportunity for vaccine production given the primary dosage form in Africa is vials.

How does that capacity affect vaccine availability in the continent?

Tracking and management of COVID-19 and other epidemic-prone diseases in West and East Africa has been made easier.

This follows the upcoming launch of the first ever daily public COVID dashboard for countries in the Horn of Africa next month.

The cross-border data collaboration project involving 23 African countries above the Equator is a USAID-funded Regional Action Through Data (RAD) programme, which is tackling COVID-19 in West and East Africa through two initiatives.

The initiatives involve the sharing of real-time regional disease data online and tech-enabled cross-border immunisations.

These initiatives are enabling governments to better collaborate to protect their roving pastoral populations from epidemics and to overcome the data issues of the Ebola era.

Monthly graphs

According to a press statement that was sent to newsrooms early this week, the tracker shows monthly graphs currently , but soon new daily regional information will be available as well. The dashboard allows …

The impact of Covid-19 on Africa as a continent has been underestimated, a new report has revealed.

According to a research that was conducted by the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC), burdens experienced by people in African Union Member States remain grave.

While carrying out the research, 81% of survey respondents reported challenges in accessing food, 77% reported experiencing income loss and 42% reported missing medical visits since the start of the pandemic.

The report calls for targeted public health measures for high-risk populations, increased surveillance in light of new variants, and scaled-up vaccine supply from the global community to control the pandemic in Africa.

While the fight against the new Covid-19 variants and the roll out of vaccines has remained low in Africa, Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that it will be crucial for African Union Member …

Ghana has moved into the next phase of Covid-19 vaccination.

The exercise that targets all health care workers in other districts and regions in Ghana kicked off on Monday, March 22.

According to the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the AstraZeneca vaccine that is being administered is safe.

Approximately 90,000 health workers are being targeted in this next phase of the vaccination programme in Ghana.

The Director-General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye said this includes both public and private sector health workers and that their names and locations have been vetted and each district will have two sites for vaccination.

According to him, all health workers would have been covered across the country within a week, or two weeks.

Additional vaccines

Speaking on Sunday afternoon during a press briefing, Dr Kuma Aboagye said Ghana was still pursuing additional vaccines as well as sustaining the public education on adherence to …

 Economic prospects are predicting that 2021 will be a happier year for Pension Schemes. The devasting impact of Covid-19 had far reaching implications on the pension sector, especially in 2020 caused by several factors.

Also Read: Covid Economics: Kenya’s navigation of debt relief

• We had massive payouts, especially in the hospitality sector as companies closed down and retrenched. Pension scheme members made early access to pension benefits to cushion their financial well-being.
• A number of employers could not afford contributions funding to pension scheme and So they adapted to this challenge by obtaining a reprieve from the Retirement Benefits Authority to have temporal suspension of contributions deduction and remittance.
• The stock market also had a significant dip in valuations occasioned decline in earnings from a number of counters especially banking sector.
• In 2020 the GDP growth dropped to 1% growth compared to the projected growth of about 5%.

Despite the …