How EAC member states lost $79 billion to Covid-19 pandemic

Arusha. The East African Community (EAC) bloc lost between $37 billion to $79 billion in revenue due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been revealed.

The pandemic led to reductions in household income and disruptions of supply chains of tradable goods and services, a senior EAC secretariat official has said.

Most affected areas were the aviation, tourism and hospitality industries, whose value chains were rendered dysfunctional.
"The Covid-19 pandemic hit the region hard,” said the EAC director of Social Sector Dr Irene Isaka at the end of a technical meeting on disease control.

The pandemic, she said, also highlighted several structural and health systems challenges which called for strengthening of the key pillars of regional health systems.
“Let me take this opportunity to urge member states to draw lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic response to build resilient health systems in our region,” she said.
She reiterated the EAC’s commitment to collaborate with member countries and development partners "to build better, stronger and healthy communities".

However, Dr Isaka said the EAC region would not have gone that far in minimizing the impact of the disease without support from outside.

She lauded the African Development Bank (AfDB) for the support it extended to the region that facilitated the bloc's Covid-19 response efforts.

The continental bank has also been seen as a 'game changer ' in the implementation of the EAC Covid-19 Regional Recovery Plan. AfDB, through the African Development Fund (ADF), approved grants totaling $9.52 billion to strengthen responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in eastern Africa.

The EAC secretariat received a total of $17.58 million in tranches of $8.79 million in tranches of $8.16 million and $629,582.
The AfDB support was directed towards the set up of coordination systems for testing and test results verification.

The funds were also spent on training of health workers and procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), test kits and laboratory consumables.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), an organization for the Horn of Africa countries, received $729,581.
The workshop of the Technical Working Group on Communicable and non-communicable diseases in the EAC ended in Moshi at the weekend.

On her part, the Principal Health Economist, Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD) from AfDB, Dr Elizabeth Owiti said the bank recognises the centrality of health in improving quality of life for Africans and enabling them to achieve their potential.

“I call upon the EAC partner states to come up with a plan to overcome gaps in national health infrastructure, which have been exposed by Covid-19 and other health crises,” she said.