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Good day Olumide,
Last week, Nigeria confirmed its first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Egypt had recorded its first case about two weeks ago.
COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, a provincial capital in China. The effects of the pandemic have been very devastating with thousands of deaths recorded in the Asian country alone since the outbreak started late December 2019.
However, there are lessons Africa can learn from China in its efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. The use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and drones is helping to curtail the deadly disease in a country with a population of over 1 billion.
For instance, e-commerce giant Alibaba launched an AI-based solution to detect coronavirus infection in less than 20 seconds with an accuracy of up to 96%. Chinese search engine Baidu has open-sourced its RNA prediction algorithm LinearFold to help researchers speed up the time for the prediction of the virus’ RNA secondary structure from 55 minutes to 27 seconds.
Besides, autonomous robots have been deployed in quarantined wards in hospitals to sterilize medical equipment without human intervention. Chatbots are giving real-time information on coronavirus outbreaks. Other tech startups have built solutions to ensure the slow spread of the disease. But the hard truth is the Chinese government has created an enabling environment for the local companies and startups to thrive years before the country was hit by a coronavirus.
Likewise, African startups can scale their capabilities especially in the face of emergencies like COVID-19. However, governments will need to create a culture that encourages the use of emerging technologies to combat societal challenges. There is a need to invest in the growth of Africa's AI industry. With the right environment, tech startups on the continent can create more innovative solutions which will drive social impact.
Cheers,
Team StartupLagos
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