Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, wealthy individuals, corporate organizations and the government have been at the forefront in the fight against the disease in the country. The list does not end there as e-commerce and tech startups have joined in the fight against the pandemic in Africa’s most populous country. Some of these companies include LifeBankNg, 54gene, Jumia and Konga.
On Monday, tech startup, Lifebank launched a mobile testing centre for COVID-19 in Lagos state, the epicentre of the virus outbreak in Nigeria. The startup partnered with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) to accelerate testing efforts in the country. Their goal is to test at least 200 persons per day.
Lifebank’s Drive-thru Mass Testing lab is located in Yaba, Lagos and allows users who come in to test for free after undergoing necessary processes. The announcement was made by its CEO, Temi Giwa-Tubosun via her twitter handle.
Yesterday, LifeBank in partnership with @nimrnigeria launched a mobile testing center to help expand testing in our community for #COVID19! We had the idea 5 days ago, built the facility, got funded & launched! We’ve tested 70 folks and can’t wait to expand testing to 200 a day! pic.twitter.com/UQelWw6Bdk
— Temie Giwa-Tubosun (@temite) March 31, 2020
Also joining in the move to stem the spread of the virus in Nigeria is 54gene, a genomics research, services, and development tech startup. The startup launched a fund with a donation of $150,000 to support the efforts of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control [NCDC] against the pandemic. 54gene also secured $350,000 from partners which will be used to increase testing capacity to an additional 1,000 tests a day, purchase necessary testing equipment, biosafety cabinets and personal protective equipment that would help protect front line healthcare workers.
In an aggressive move to aid the fight against the virus, e-commerce companies, Jumia and Konga is giving discounts and free deliveries on groceries, gadgets and other household items to customers based on orders on their platforms. This will not only cushion the impact of the pandemic on its customers, but also encourage people to stay at home.
While Jumia is offering a price slash on over 6 million home essential products and groceries, Konga has offered a 10 million Naira intervention package which will be disbursed to customers through vouchers. The efforts of these tech startups and e-commerce companies would be creating a significant impact on the war against COVID-19 in Nigeria while helping to minimize the impacts on Africa’s most populous country.
