The coronavirus pandemic is posing a major challenge in Africa. With not much help expected from donors, the continent’s tech geniuses are inventing quick and cheap solutions to curb the spread of the virus.
Innovation and figuring things out is nothing new to Africa, a continent where people are used to making do with limited resources. From homemade farm implements and vehicles found in dusty South African barns, to a boy building a windmill out of scraps of junk in rural Malawi, to the popular mobile money payment system M-Pesa, people across Africa know how to get creative.
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic continues to compound the continent’s limited resources — and not much help is expected from Western donors, whose economies have been derailed by the outbreak. Now many startup hubs across the continent are ramping up innovative solutions, even for the most basic and temporary of needs.
Ventilators
COVID-19 attacks the human respiratory system. People with severe symptoms struggle to breathe, and need artificial ventilation. But across Africa, there are very few intensive care units outfitted with these machines.
It’s not just an African problem: industrialized nations like the United States and Germany have ordered car manufacturers to produce ventilators en masse. With demand outstripping production, countries like South Africa, Ghana and Uganda have started looking into producing their own ventilators. Read more…
