Fighting the Common Enemy: Coronavirus

COVID-19 Intervention Program by CcHUB

Mankind evolving

Mankind has greatly evolved since the prehistoric hunter-gatherer days and we have had to challenge ourselves to solve our problems through this journey. All of the conveniences we enjoy today were unfathomable in previous years. These conveniences come as a result of businesses choosing to solve the problems we face daily.

This system is the only substantial and sustainable way to make long-lasting progress on the greatest challenges we come across as humans and one of such challenges is the global pandemic that the world is facing right now which was caused by the new Coronavirus.

“The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a deadly disease from a large family of viruses that are known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases like pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death”.

With CcHUB’s effort to foster social change and innovation over the past 10 years by working with businesses and startups to solve Africa’s biggest and challenging problems, we played our societal role by working together with partners and startups solving problems around the COVID-19 pandemic. This article describes the work that the CcHUB’s Startup Support Team have done so far and the results achieved.

Global Disruption

The COVID-19 pandemic created health, economic, and in some cases, security crises that are presently disrupting the lives of people on the African continent and across the globe. Governments, businesses and individuals around the world have undertaken unprecedented measures; making dramatic changes and economic sacrifices to save lives and livelihoods.

The world came together to put up a strong fight against the COVID-19 to the end that the impact of the pandemic on our economy, collective health and continental security is greatly limited. Countries have imposed lockdowns at different times, schools and restaurants closed, events cancelled or postponed, factories and companies shutting down or asking employees to work from home and even in some cases in North America and Europe, emergency funds released to the public.

CcHUB team working from home

A lot has changed since the pandemic started; how we communicate with one another, how we move around and travel, how we live and interact, and how we work. This brings to mind the research carried out by Ajay K Garg and Jan Ver der Rijst in 2015 on the benefits and pitfalls of employees working from home. The study examined the cost-saving implications for a private company and their employees if they would be allowed to work from home. In the research, data was collected from 48 respondents and the majority of the employees were willing to work from home. This allowed the company to save money on rental, electricity, levy, rates, sewer and water expenses.

With the pandemic forcing companies to adopt the working from home model to running their business, companies and entrepreneurs have been declaring monthly savings as employees carry out their duties remotely. Bosun Tijani, CEO of Co-Creation Hub, also mentioned monthly savings of up to $50,000 since working from home started.

For many companies, reducing their monthly burn was one way to stay alive this period and for others, it means pivoting their business model in consideration of the new realities. One way the startup support team at CcHUB did this was to swiftly change our Airbus accelerator program to become fully virtual, Francis Sani wrote about it here and beyond this, it was expedient to build up a resistance against the negative effects of the pandemic on millions of Africans.

Mobilization of Solutions

As an innovation centre dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity, on the 15th of March 2020, we announced that we would be providing funding as well as research and design support for COVID-19 related projects through our Design Lab. This was in light of the pandemic and its consequences to Africa’s health, food security and economy. The call for projects covered these areas:

1. Last-mile communication: Educating the public on COVID-19 and ensuring the right information reaches even remote locations.
2. Support for the infected and the most vulnerable in society: Ensuring that those that are vulnerable (especially the old and ill) can be well taken care of.
3. Local production of essential medical supplies: With the borders closed, ensuring that we are still able to produce the required Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) needed by our frontline workers.
4. Support for our food value chain: In the event of movement restrictions, ensuring that food can still be produced and moved across the value chain to the consumers.

We received 2,800+ applications from entrepreneurs, innovators, civic organizations and companies who are working tirelessly to combat the spread and impact of the pandemic. Applications were received from 5 continents and 90 countries globally. About 94% of the applications came from 43 countries in Africa with 38% of the applications from Nigeria.

Application analytics by Country

Out of the applications received, over 1,300 applications which made up 45% of the applications were focused on improving the last-mile communication across Africa. 874 applications were tailored to support the infected and most vulnerable in our society, while the remaining applications were focused on local production of supplies and support for our food value chain. 42% of the applications were at the prototype stage, 30% still on the idea stage while only 28% of the applications were fully launched. These fully launched projects included companies that were already operational and were able to pivot their business operations to build solutions to fight the common enemy.

Application analytics by project focus & status

Partners on the mission

“A journey is better measured in friends rather than miles.” — Tim Cahiil

To combat the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Africa, the African Union through the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) highlighted the urgent need to put in place an effective communication strategy to ensure the real-time transmission of information relating to COVID-19 to African citizens, as well as fight misinformation and misconceptions. Owing to this, the Africa CDC partnered with CcHUB to support innovative communications projects based on African languages at the semi-urban and rural population across Africa. This involved educating the public and ensuring fact-based information using various media like comics, animation, illustrations, infographics, interactive SMS, mobile apps etc.

This collaboration was supported by the Joint African Union — German Cooperation on Citizens Engagement and Innovative Data Use for Africa’s Development (Data-Cipation) programme implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The selected teams were supported with grant funding of up to $5,000 for research and design support.

Partnering on the mission also was the Lagos State Science Research and Innovation Council (LASRIC) to support COVID-19 related projects in response to the pandemic. The immediate focus of Lagos state in curbing the spread of this pandemic was to alleviate issues such as contact tracing, last-mile communication, the supply chain for delivery of essential medication, food & healthcare materials. Selected teams received $1,000 grant funding and also have the opportunity to receive subsequent funding of $12,000 in a convertible note with an equity claim in possible future funding rounds.

Partners on the mission

Process & Selection

In selecting the startups that we worked with on the project, we considered those applications that were fully launched rather than idea stage applications. Our selection process was straightforward, we started with the general vetting of the applications to eliminate projects out of scope, then we shortlisted the projects with a clear plan based and finally moved on to hold interviews with those that had the competence to deliver.

Some of the criteria that influenced our decision included:

1. Relevant to one of the focus areas
2. Project fully launched
3. Presence of a capable team
4. Not an NGO
5. Ability to scale

A snapshot of our process of selection

The 18 startups we have supported thus far include:

1. Zikoko (Bigcabal) — Nigeria: Zikoko created a microsite and videos in 3 African languages that provide verified information about Coronavirus.
2. Flare — Kenya: Flare got support to provide their network of ambulances for COVID-19, they also train ambulance teams to manage COVID-19.
3. Capital Power Multimedia — Nigeria: Capital Power Multimedia created animated videos localizing COVID-19 related information to 6 local African languages.
4. Chekkit — Nigeria: Chekkit created a platform that engages directly with the public using USSD to share information, administer surveys, quizzes and report suspected cases.
5. The Assembly Hub — Nigeria: The Assembly hub repurposed their network of garment/textile manufacturers to produce face masks and other PPE for frontline workers.
6. Pricepally — Nigeria: Pricepally got support to enable people to buy and share food in bulk directly from producers/wholesalers to reduce cost and get items delivered directly.
7. Wellvis — Nigeria: Wellvis created an online tool that classifies citizens based on exposure to coronavirus, providing possible triaging and screening from their homes.
8. Brck — Kenya/Rwanda: Brck, through their free public WIFI provider, received support to provide relevant coronavirus information to users through a gamified system.
9. Guereza Animation — Nigeria: Guereza created a comic series that communicates key information about the pandemic to children in 3 African languages.
10. Gricd — Nigeria: Gricd provided their IoT enabled devices, Gricd Mote, to the NCDC and NIMR to help in monitoring temperature-sensitive medical materials.
11. Doctoora Health — Nigeria: Doctoora provided a physician-led support centre with a patient care helpline and telemedicine support for those self-isolating.
12. NiftyWorks Plus — Kenya: NiftyWorks received support to produce short animated series in English and Kiswahili communicating key information on the pandemic.
13. Dunamis-Cognito — Nigeria: Dunamis-Cognito received support to locally produce face shields to be used by hospitals and frontline workers in the COVID-19 fight.
14. X-Labs Digital Health Hub — Nigeria: X-Labs received support to host a series of webinar sessions centred on educating medics on the management of COVID-19 related cases.
15. FlyMyAds Digital Services — Nigeria: FlyMyAds received support to create and distribute short educational videos on COVID-19 preventive care in different Nigerian languages.
16. Creative Nestlings — South Africa: Creative Nestlings worked on a series of mini-comics sharing critical information about coronavirus in 15 local South African languages.
17. Nupe Project — Nigeria: Nupe project team received support to design a medical-grade silicone mask that can be washed to be used by medical workers and first responders.
18. mDoc — Nigeria: mDoc received support to modify their existing NaviHealth™ platforms to help patients navigate where to go for COVID-19 related care, as well as non-COVID-19 care.

You can access some of the downloadable resources created here.

Impact So Far

We have been working with these startups in the past few months to fight the common enemy. The startups had access to the following support from CcHUB and our partners:

1. Access to real-time COVID-19 related information from Africa CDC
2. Funding support from either Africa CDC, LASRIC or CcHUB
3. Research support from our Design Lab at Kigali, Rwanda
4. General support in product development, distribution and talent development
5. Partnership with NCDC, NIMR and the Lagos State Government

The past few months have been challenging for most businesses and these startups weren’t excluded. Beyond evolving their business models to serve the public interest during the pandemic, they still had to find ways to survive the period. The startups were selected at different times in the past few months, but their impact in a short time has been remarkable.

Impact Numbers

Through the effort of the startups working on solving different problems but working on a similar mission, we have reached over 3,000,000 people directly and over 10,000,000 indirectly. The focus for the startups working on improving last-mile communications was on creating content in various local African languages. They were able to create content in more than 20 languages. The impact of their effort is far greater than the summary in the image, as a number of the startups were not focused on last-mile communications. Other scenarios of impact include, but are not exhaustive:

1. Improving the work being done by NCDC and NIMR through Gricd’s Mote devices
2. Training over 350 healthcare workers in Kenya on handling COVID-19 cases
3. Organizing series of webinars educating medics on managing COVID-19
4. Recorded more than 676 African COVID-19 care facilities on across Africa
5. Locally producing face masks, PPEs, medical-grade silicone masks
6. Creation of the triaging tool for contact tracing and the telemedicine platform

The Journey Ahead

COVID-19 is impacting our lives, our communities, our education and our economies, and while the virus is affecting everyone, it is expected to have the most significant impact on the vulnerable and the poor. The effort from governments, organizations and individuals around the globe and in Africa to fight the common enemy: Coronavirus is a great sight to behold and the fight continues. In the past few months, we have seen companies go under and others evolve and grow despite the pandemic. We have seen governments cut spending and prioritize the health of the general public. We have seen people spend more time with their loved ones and get comfortable with being by themselves in quarantine.

As we continue to carry out our duty to catalyze creative social tech ventures and co-create new solutions to the many social problems in Africa, we are grateful to our partners and the startups working with us on this mission to fight the common enemy. As the cases continue to decrease in Africa; companies, schools, restaurants, and airports are already resuming normal activities. One thing that we expect to see is everyone becoming a lot more health-conscious in going about their day-to-day activities.

This is an ongoing project and we should be seeing a lot more impact from the activities of the startups in the next few months.

See project details: https://cchubnigeria.com/covid-19-support/

PS: Hooray! CcHUB is 10 years this year — 2020! #10yearsAndGrowing

Snapshot of CcHUB Impact numbers

Thank you for doing your part and thank you for social-distancing.