The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting innovating business opportunities for Africa around testing and contact tracing, Econet founder and executive chairman Strive Masiyiwa has revealed.
By Dyson Murwira
Masiyiwa said this in a Zoom call with Sarah Manyika of Museum for African Diaspora.
“There are extraordinary amounts of innovation around testing. Being tested and contact tracing is going to be part of the norm. That’s the new normal. You’ll go to a restaurant and be tested. All this is producing a plethora of innovations. People are rising to the challenge around innovation”, the London-based billionaire said.
He mentioned that this is the opportunity that Africans can seize since the continent cannot join the global race to find a vaccine because of the huge costs involved.
Earlier this month, Vice President Kembo Mohadi launched a contact tracing software produced by Information Technology students at the Chinhoyi University of Technology.
The mobile application allows the user to enter names of his or her contacts and their locations and the app’s protocol will generate COVI-19 red zones, which are areas the patient has spent a considerable amount of time.
The application will then warn other users if one is entering a red zone.
Masiyiwa, who is also the Africa Union Special Envoy for COVID-19, recently donated 120 000 testing kits and Mobile Test Laboratories to bolster Zimbabwe’s combat against the deadly pandemic. Maisha Health Fund, an arm of Econet’s subsidiary Cassava Smartech, is currently rolling out free COVID-19 testing, free of charge.
To date, Zimbabwe has recorded 1362 coronavirus cases and 23 deaths since March 2020. Globally, the virus has infected over 13million people, wiping out over 589 000.
