Ecobank Foundation’s Chief Operating Officer featured on a high-profile panel at Africa Health Expo, discussing how businesses must unite to prevent malaria.
In 2020 over 600,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa died from malaria – but there is a funding shortage to fight the disease: the World Health Organization says Africa needs US$10 billion to implement strategic plans for malaria control.
The private sector has a major role to play in the prevention and elimination of malaria on the continent. Speaking at the Africa Health Expo in Abidjan in December 2022, Elisa Desbordes-Cissé, Ecobank Foundation’s Chief Operating Officer, emphasised the need to mobilise private sector funding. She told delegates that “Funding for the fight against malaria is stagnating. The vast majority of it is external. That is why we need to mobilise local private sector resources to respond to this disease, which is absolutely preventable.”
At the event, Hon. Ake Natonde, a Beninese MP, summed up the challenge when stating: “Malaria does not deserve to be looked at as a triviality, but deserves sustained attention.”
The Ecobank Foundation leads the Zero Malaria Business Leadership Initiative to eradicate malaria in Africa.