A month or two away from the fifth anniversary of the Coronavirus outbreak, you might be tempted to wonder what reflections will be going on in the minds of Africa’s top 50-something leaders and their advisers! But it might be an idle thought, seeing the escalating bickering amongst states on the continent over transport systems, trade (mal)practices, (problematic) sharing of natural resources and outright geopolitical jostling — all of which seem to indicate that we don’t ‘waste’ too much time on reflection?
For example, what lessons have we learnt, which may define the resilience that we have built over five years to handle future and bigger crises?
Last time luck and climatic factors were on our side, so much that the “few” African covid-related deaths occurred in hospitals possibly due to patient and equipment mishandling, than at home people focused on taking herbal concoctions – and recovered. How more robust have our systems and institutions grown since 2020?
In Uganda, for example, there was a mindset shift, with many more people prioritising saving before consumption. Small savings groups sprouted and many of them blossomed. Research done by umbrella microfinance bodies found a near obsession with saving.
The giant National Social Security Fund was also pleasantly faced by savers’ reluctance to withdraw their money even after attaining the qualifying age to exit.
Another development was the growth of business premises from Kampala city into the countryside. Many businesses that left the city under lockdown never went back when the lockdown was lifted.
They built their own premises in the suburbs without borrowing and never returned to the rented ones in town. “Without borrowing”!
Many people also picked up gardening and started producing a portion of their kitchen needs, starting as an activity to beat boredom in the two years not working formally, ending as a habit, an economically healthy habit. Many who could, started working online and cut out transport costs.
Needless to say, the developed countries learnt a lot, because they are designed and inclined to learn. They also got some unintended gains, like the unfortunate windfall insurance companies made when millions of elderly pensioners died.
Some estimates have put the annual payout that used to accrue to the millions of deceased pensioners — many of whom could have lived on for another 20 years— at $70 billion in North America and the EU.
This unfortunate saving has had several channels to take including increased reserves, reinvesting in financial markets, reduced pressure on underfunded pensions categories (like the 80s plus pensioners), and generally increased profitability.
So, what increased wisdom do African governments have to show five years since the pandemic hit? Did they reduce on wastefulness in their expenditure and kept the habit, like many of their citizens did? Did they increase on their (foreign) reserves? Did they cut on their borrowing, especially those loans which are aggressively sold to them?
The lockdown season was also a time to learn to do with less fossil fuels, with at least five developed countries already moving to electrify their roads so that electric and hybrid cars get charged wirelessly as they drive along.
These are Sweden who pioneered the charging from the road surface, Germany which is developing overhead charging on the road, Israel, US, and even Italy which some people deride as being less organised than it should be.
Instead of Cairo and Addis quarreling over the Grand Renaissance dam shouldn’t they be cracking a deal on electrifying Egyptian roads using power from GERD?
As Kampala and Nairobi fight about who imports fossil fuel destined for Uganda, can Kenya be ordering a few hundred electric buses from Uganda, whose factory is already taking orders for customised vehicles designed and built to customers’ needs?
And as Nairobi and Lusaka bicker over reciprocal flight frequencies, can someone tell the Zambians that Kenya Airways started experimenting with flying long distances using sustainable aviation fuel (biofuel that doesn’t emit carbon which drives global warming), that the brothers down south can start producing or supplying the feedstock for this clean fuel, which is the future of aviation, with KQ as their default customer!
In fact, Zambia is one country in Africa where most of the plants known to yield rich feedstock for biofuel are grown with ease, so Nairobi and Lusaka should be trading aviation fuel, not blocking each other’s planes.
Human history is full of examples when Mankind advanced after adversity. What will the outgoing African Union leadership tell the continent that was attained from the Coronavirus episode?
