Vol.9. "Measures against COVID-19 Taken by Governments in Africa"

In the 9th episode of the “Stay Home Stay with ViVID” series, I would like to summarize "Measures against COVID-19 taken by governments in Africa".

Today, I would like to compare the measures against COVID-19 in Ghana🇬🇭, Nigeria🇳🇬, and South Africa🇿🇦. Ghana and Nigeria are located in West Africa, and South Africa is located south of the African continent. The number of people infected with coronavirus has increased, and there are some deaths in all countries. In these countries, schools are closed and meetings, religious gatherings are also prohibited*1. (attached picture: closed school in Sekyere, Ghana) Prohibition of the gatherings with many people is the measures taken by many governments around the world, and we can see that these countries are also taking this measure.

So, there are many same measures taken in these countries. Is there any difference in the measures against coronavirus in these three countries?

The first difference is the content and period of lockdown and curfew. As mentioned in the vol.1 of the series, Ghana lifted a curfew on April 20th*2. Meanwhile, Nigeria is gradually easing curfew beginning from May, but it is prohibited to go out at night*3. In South Africa, it is forbidden to go out for anything other than buying daily necessities, running in the morning (within a radius of 5 km from home), and going out at night is also forbidden*1. The curfew was lifted earlier in Ghana than in other countries, but the number of infected people is increasing day by day, making the situation unpredictable.

The second difference! What kind of economic measures are taken?

In Ghana, where our support community is, the government announced to provide $100 million to prepare and respond to measures against COVID-19, and approximately it would provide $210 million to the medical and other industries*4. South Africa, which is the most economically developed of these three countries, announced that it will provide a total of $3.70 billion in social support*5. Also, various tax exemptions for a certain period of time and many other measures are taken in South Africa. In Nigeria, about $1.4 billion will be devoted to taxpayers and employers*6. Although there are differences in the amount of money and the content of support provided in each country, you can see that each country has various measures to minimize the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus.

Finally, we can see that African countries, which must deal with infectious diseases as well as poverty, have different challenges from those of developed countries. The number of infected people in these countries is still increasing considerably, and they are in a critical situation.

1. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-52395976

2. https://www.jetro.go.jp/biznews/2020/04/d1c3f0d2645a8da0.html

3. https://www.ng.emb-japan.go.jp/itprtop_ja/00_000029_00001.html

4. https://www.moh.gov.gh/100-million-provided-to-enhance-coronavirus-preparedness-and-response-plan-president-akufo-addo/ , https://allafrica.com/stories/202005200721.html

5. https://www.jetro.go.jp/biznews/2020/04/0485985bf4c3a062.html

6. https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/Policy-Responses-to-COVID-19#G