How Jack Ma wants to fight coronavirus in Africa where he’s investing $10m on netpreneurs
Chinese billionaire and founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, has announced that he is donating masks and test kits to all 54 African countries to support the continent in its fight against the novel coronavirus.
That is how the founder of e-commerce platform Alibaba.com wants to help the continent where he is investing $10 million to support and mentor young entrepreneurs.
In a statement shared on his Twitter page on Monday, Jack said his foundation will donate a total of 1.1 million testing kits, six million masks, and 60,000 protective suits and face shields.
Each of the 54 African countries will get 20,000 test kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 medical use protective suits and face shields. In addition to that, he revealed that his foundation will also work with local medical institutions in Africa to provide online training material for coronavirus clinical treatments.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Africa has so far confirmed over 400 cases, Egypt being the hardest hit with 150 cases, South Africa 62 and Algeria 60, as at Tuesday March 17, 2020.
“The world cannot afford the unthinkable consequences of a COVID-19 pandemic in Africa,” he said.
The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, will take delivery of the supplies and oversee the distribution to other African countries, Jack said.
That was the richest Chinese man’s unique way of announcing his presence on Twitter. He joined Twitter this month and his first two tweets on Monday were about measures he is taking to contain the spread of coronavirus in different parts of the world.
His first tweet announced that the first shipment of aid supplies was on its way from Shanghai to the United States of America, where he is also donating 500,000 testing kits and one million masks.
His second tweet was about Africa where he saw potentials during his first visit to the continent in 2017 and has flagged off an initiative to empower African startups by allocating $10 million over the next 10 years for the development of 100 digital startups.
In 2018, Jack launched his flagship entrepreneur programme in Africa, the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative led by the Jack Ma Foundation. A Nigerian healthtech startup, LifeBank, founded by Temie Giwa-Tubosun beat nine other finalists to win the inaugural pitching competition at an event held in Accra, Ghana, in November 2019. All the 10 finalists shared the $1 million prize.
Giwa-Tubosun’s LifeBank delivers blood and other essential medical supplies to hospitals.
“I am convinced that Africa’s future belongs to its entrepreneurs, those tireless dreamers for whom every problem is an opportunity. I have no doubt that all these young people we will meet in 2017 will be the future heroes of the continent. And I have promised myself that I will do everything I can to help them achieve their goals,” Jack said in a recent interview.
As part of measures to do ‘everything’ he could to help the future of Africa achieve their goals as he has promised, Jack has decided to rise in support of the continent as it battles to contain the spread of coronavirus.
