Let Africa into the market for COVID-19 diagnostics – John Nkegasong, the head of Africa CDC, outlined a plan of action here for African countries increase their levels of coordination and production to get the diagnostics they need to the ramp-up testing to 10 million in the next four months. Earlier in the piece, he addressed how African countries were getting boxed out of securing the testing materials they need, something I shared concern about a few weeks ago. Dr. Nkegasong’s focus on African countries coordinating their procurement and production of diagnostics is so key to ensuring Africa doesn’t find itself on an island dealing with COVID-19.
It’s Time to Help Africa Fight the Virus – This article shows why it’s so important that African folks control the narrative around Africa. In sharp contrast with Dr. Nkegasong’s piece, this one signs Africa’s death knell as a guaranteed catastrophe.
If the United States, Europe, and others succeed in containing the virus in the coming months, there is no way contagion throughout Africa could be contained there.
It’s not until the second half of the piece where the authors acknowledges that African leaders have moved quickly to address the COVID-19 pandemic. You see how differently this piece reads from the first one above? It hits different when the lion tells its own story. That said, the U.S. and other global powers do have a role to play and supporting African countries efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 across the continent. That starts with not being an obstacle to African countries navigating this pandemic.
Why IROKO furloughed 28% of our Nigeria team – I always appreciate reading Jason Njoku’s posts because he’s so open about what he’s gone through building IROKO into the on-demand video beast its become over the past decade. To have to furlough well over a quarter of your team while staring down the COVID-19 situation with no sense of when things will improve has to be tough. To hear that you’ve been furloughed is even more tough. More vim to Jason and the folks who got furloughed.
No sunshine — DFC limits transparency when it is needed most – Stephanie Amoako highlights how the U.S.’s new International Development Finance Corporation secured exclusion from sunshine legislation that would require it to maintain a certain level of transparency and the deals it puts together. I’m really hopeful for the impact that the DFC could have in reshaping the USS economic relationship with African countries, prioritizing economic development and adding value to African countries pastoral significant economic growth. It’s concerning that the DFC put Shield itself from the public being able to see what it’s doing with the 60 billion dollars it has to invest. Hopefully Stephanie’s peace Brazos my eyebrows and gets this changed.
What Would You Risk for a Faster Cure? – When I saw that Michael Milken is playing a critical role in pushing vaccine development for COVID-19, I got real nervous. He shaped a good bit of the financial world in the 80s and 90s, and gave a bunch of entrepreneurs the financing they need to build businesses that are still important today. Reginald Lewis became the first black man in the U.S. to buy a billion dollar company with Milken’s help. Ted Turner. John Malone. The list goes on. That said, he went to jail for two years and paid over a billion dollars in fines for a bunch of tax and securities violations. He’s rehabbed his image over the past couple of decades through the Milken Institute and its Global Conference. He got a pardon from the president earlier this year for his past crimes. Finding a vaccine for COVID-19 is definitely an all hands on deck situation, but can he be trusted?
