No Stopping - Hakuna Matata  (It means "no worries"). Photo captured at Zimbabwe-Zambia Victoria Falls border post.
Hakuna Matata – No worries (as long as we’re prepared)

 

Like me, you’ve probably received each snippet of news about Ebola with fear and trepidation. A virus with a fatality rate of approximately  90% and no vaccine or cure is sure to leave anyone shell shocked. It must be incredibly tough residing at the front line of this epidemic in West Africa. In an increasingly interconnected world, information about such outbreaks and resultant concerns thereafter travel rapidly. As a big believer in the need and opportunity for Africa’s business borders to be brought down, the Ebola outbreak has left me pondering deeply about the following:

Budgeting Adequately For Cross Border Healthcare

Lack of adequate soft infrastructure like sound healthcare needs to be highlighted a lot more than is the case currently.  Having thousands of traders crisscrossing the continent is a huge growth and development enabler, that’s a solid fact that organisations like the Economic Commission For Africa back up with data. But, an issue that is rarely touched on is the potential health risks that come with this and how they should be managed.

I remember travelling to Lusaka (Zambia), and having to go to Johannesburg (South Africa) less than 5 days thereafter. Zambia is classified as a yellow fever prevalent zone… None of that mattered to me until I found myself at the Beitbridge border post that separates Zimbabwe & South Africa (the busiest border post in East & Southern Africa). It was a chilly morning (2am to be precise), and the South African immigration lady flipped through my passport and stared at the Zambian immigration stamps with zooming eyes. I hadn’t cared so much as to get a yellow fever jab and gotten the accompanying proof thereof. I now found myself being denied entry into South AfricaShe mentioned something about me falling within the 5 day incubation period and thus my entry was impermissible. What happened next? Well, I got into South Africa just before the coach I was travelling aboard left. No, I didn’t pay a bribe. I begged her to the extent that she grabbed my passport in surrender and stamped it!

Traders are inevitably going to move around the continent more in the coming years, we need to prepare for this reality. While the big regional players and multinationals likely prepare adequately, the thousands of SMEs that are responsible for the bulk of cross border trade, are almost always ill prepared. The fact that I didn’t know about Yellow fever enough not to give a hoot until the SA immigration incident, is worrying. But so too is the fact that in Lusaka’s market’s I saw hawkers peddling the book for a what must have been peanuts. What if this was Ebola?

Increasing access to information about Cross Border Health Risks:

Lack of information is our chief awareness albatross in Africa. Unsurprisingly, it was one of the main culprits to blame for the rapid spread of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Going back to my yellow fever incident, I honestly didn’t know about the need for a yellow fever jab prior to making the trip to Zambia. All I cared about was going there and scouting out the opportunities & possibilities. Yes, I know it’s highly ignorant and irresponsible in hindsight, but it’s a reality I believe the majority of traders crossing borders are confronted with.

Ignorance is often the result of the greater obstacles like the cost of healthcare. At a private facility, getting a yellow fever jab can cost over $50 in Zimbabwe. Now if a trader has saved up $400 to travel  to Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) to import textiles, that $50 bucks becomes an impediment to receiving information about the importance of the jab.

Sticking to awareness, now that I think of it, there seems to be no app with facts and country specific health info (here’s an opportunity).  Such an app should be able to adequately list/recommend health requirements when headed to a particular nation. Wikipedia’s a trusted source, but sometimes it delves too deep into a query, so much as to lack relevance when seeking out information quickly.

Is cross border healthcare a missed opportunity?

Over 600 million Africans have mobile phones, whilst millions tune into DSTV/Gotv, Africa’s biggest pay television service provider. Like Healthcare, these two platforms are subscription based. They can serve as a sound gauge of which industries are rising on a Pan African/cross border scale. With them, I’ve seen the ads about eCommerce portals, cell phone brands, air conditioners, beer, vehicles, decor etc. It would seem as if I’ve seen ads about everything except healthcare insurance. Crazily, the last conversation I had about “cross border healthcare” was someone urging me to look into the UK based Bupa medical insurance and even an Indian based service! We have pan African telcos, banks and even retailers, why isn’t Pan African Healthcare insurance a multi-billion dollar reality.

Millions of Africans (especially traders) are waiting for no frills healthcare insurance services. Like many nascent industries, such an offering would need to work around the lack of support services (adequate healthcare insurance needs adequate healthcare infrastructure). Where are the entrepreneurs? Only they are crazy enough to make this a reality, just like they did with the telecoms revolution…

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