How East African companies are responding to coronavirus

East African companies have shown remarkable support in fighting and containing the spread of coronavirus. We highlight efforts made by companies and hope to inspire more businesses to take action. 

Ushahidi

Through crowd-sourcing tools, Ushahidi has been able to help people raise their voices in times of crisis. To help contain the spread of the virus, the platform has done multiple deployments to help gather data that is useful to make decisions in this uncertain times. The company also waived it's basic plan fees for three months to aid in covid-19 response efforts. 

Sokowatch

Sokowatch continues offering a service that is more essential at this time. In order to help inform communities, the team in Rwanda branded their tuk tuks with preventive measures, killing two birds with one stone, service and information. 

Longhorn publishers and Airtel Kenya

The virus has created crisis in all sectors and education has not been spared. With students having to stay at home during this time, Longhorn publishers in Kenya launched a free learning platform for primary and high school students. Airtel Kenya also joined in on this initiative by offering free internet on this platform (https://elearning.longhornpublishers.com/). 

Safaricom

The giant telco waived transaction charges on person to person transfers of less than ksh. 1000. This move aimed to encourage people to embrace mobile money transactions and reduce the virus spreading by handling cash.

Banks

Banks in Kenya also waived online fees to encourage more clients to adopt mobile money transactions. 

L'oreal Kenya

L'oreal Kenya joined the efforts to fight this pandemic by producing Nice & Lovely sanitizers that will be distributed to first line medical teams and supermarket staff across the country

Entrepreneurs

With the world finally agreeing on the need to wear face masks, entrepreneurs across Kenya are coming up with cloth masks to help protect people from the virus.