African Union rounds up African business leaders to support African doctors volunteering to fight Ebola

African Union chairwoman Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

War against Ebola: The Africa Union to mobile Africa’s private sector

by Tadesse D.

The African Union is joining forces with Africa’s private sector, for the first time, to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Towards this end, the AU has organized a forum to be held on November 8 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to mobilize significant resources from within Africa to join national and international efforts on the ground, as well as discuss reversing the economic decline of the countries and post-Ebola recovery.

High profile African businessmen, including Aliko Dangote Dangote of Group Nigeria, Strive Masiyiwa of Econet Zimbabwe and Patrice Motsepe of ARM South Africa have already confirmed their attendance.

Also confirmed are, Kola Karim, MD and CEO of Shoreline Energy International and Shoreline Power Company Limited, Jim Ovia, Founder of the Zenith Bank Group, Mohammed Dewji Group CEO of Mohammed Enterprises, Bob Collymore CEO of Safaricom, Sifiso Dabengwa Group CEO of MTN Africa, Ashish Thakar Founder and Managing Director of Mara Group, Sim Tshabalala Group CEO of the  Standard Bank Group and Yusuf Manji, Chairman and CEO of Quality Group to mention a few.

Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that the spread of Ebola may be slowing in Liberia, one of the three West African countries – including Sierra Leone and Guinea – that have been most ravaged by the deadly virus.

Through its AU Support to the Outbreak of Ebola in West Africa (ASEOWA) mission, the AU has deployed over a hundred volunteer medical and health workers to the three affected countries. Among them are epidemiologists, medical doctors, clinicians, public health specialists and communications personnel. These teams have enhanced the capacity of existing national and international response mechanisms.

Following Dr. Dlamini Zuma’s call to all African Heads of State to contribute more health workers towards this efforts, over 2000 medical personnel have so far been pledged.  Contributions from the business people will support the deployment of these volunteers.

“There is much more work to be done, and we welcome the willingness already shown by big businesses on the Continent in helping to restore normality to the regions affected, where Ebola has had a major socio-economic impact. The pride of the African continent lies in our commitment to help other Africans. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is unprecedented, and our co-ordinated responses to the crisis are therefore urgent. We need to continue to provide financial assistance to these regions, to be able to track and contain the disease, provide treatment to those who are sick, and restore normality to these communities.” says Dr. Dlamini Zuma.

This indicates that global efforts to combat the outbreak are making headway, thanks in no small measure to the AU Support Mission’s efforts to mobilise technical expertise, resources and political and financial support the fight against Ebola.