Easing lockdown offers opportunity to grow trade

Africa’s economy is set to rebound amid indications that several countries are slowly relaxing lockdown rules and preparing to trade.

For Zimbabwe, the economic situation is already looking up after President Mnangagwa early this week relaxed lockdown restrictions, allowing most businesses to open following almost two months of level four lockdown that brought most businesses to a standstill.

The country had to switch to level four lockdown early January after a second and more intense wave of Covid-19 infections hit the country, resulting in more than 1 400 deaths and more than 30 000 new infections during that period.

However, there is a decline in new infections, hence Government’s decision to open up the economy.

Following President Mnangagwa’s announcement, most mainstream, economic activities, small to medium enterprises, food markets and the informal sector have since resumed operations.

In South Africa, business is beginning to peak after the country reopened its major land borders with neighbouring countries after closing them in January as it battled a new and deadly variant.

South Africa opened at least 20 of its border posts, with officials saying steps will be taken to avoid crowds of travellers gathering at the immigration posts.

Similar reopening of economies is taking shape in several other African countries, with the hope that the ongoing vaccinations will bring the much needed relief and restore normalcy across the world.

Encouraged by declining death and infection rates, coupled with the and the availability of vaccines, several countries are readying to reviving their economies that had been adversely affected the novel Covid-19 virus for more than a year.

For a continent that almost went into recession for the first time in a quarter century as Covid-19 swept across, the reopening is a welcome step toward restoring economic growth across Africa.

This is a significant development as it will show the continent’s commitment to fight the pandemic by ensuring that its people do not go hungry and will continue to thrive despite the effects of the virus that hasleft more than two million people dead across the globe.

While the reopening of the economy is a positive development for multitudes of families that had been struggling to put food on the table, people will have to be cautious to avert the further spread of the virus.

On the other hand,governments face a coterie of challenges balancing how they can protect the people while ensuring that economies remain functional.

That alone requires due diligence and a buy-in from the people to ensure that they do not lower their guard in the fight against Covid-19.

For Zimbabwe, it is clear that the Government will not take chances, hence its decision to keep social functions at bay while keeping an eye on new infections.

President Mnangagwa is not in a hurry to reopen social life very much, hence his decision to keep gatherings to a maximum of 50 people.

The continued ban on bars, nightclubs, sitting in restaurants and big parties is one of the country’s major strategies in keeping the virus at bay by decongesting closed places of associations, which can be superspreader events.

While several nations might not adopt the same strategies like Zimbabwe in fighting Covid-19, there is need for a convergence of ideas of what works for the region and the continent as a whole considering economic and social integrations that happen across borders.

For years, Zimbabwe and South Africa have become major trading partners as attested by economic activities and transactions that happen on a daily basis.

According to the United Nations International Trade Centre, South Africa remains one of the most important trading partners for Zimbabwe; with Zimbabwe importing 40 percent of its total imports and exporting 75 percent of its total exports to South Africa.

On the social front, several intermarriages take place between South Africans and Zimbabweans, with social interactions and cultural activities further cementing relations between the countries.

That is the situation in other African countries, a development that calls for a convergence of preventative strategies to ensure there are no resurgence of new infections.

At a continental level, while there are a few nations that can claim that there are past peak infections owing to inoculations and sticking to World Health Organisation regulations, possibilities of new waves cannot be ruled out hence the need to emphasise on regional strategies.

The world’s recent experience with Covid-19 shows that pandemics know no borders nor skin colour.

Restrictions that countries find themselves under remind many that freedom of movement — whether across countries, or borders — is the norm that everyone hopes to return to.

That dream will only become possible once regional blocs and the continent at large supports and appreciates the importance of regional economic activities and trade.

Given the ease with which diseases can spread across countries, there is also room and scope to further strengthen existing programmes that support countries in managing pandemic prevention and control.

Anything that can be put on the table in form of financial assistance, expertise and resource mobilisation for scientific collaboration across borders is what African countries should be advocating for.

Within the same stride, governments and organisations need to quickly come up with policies and innovations to deal and survive within this Covid-19 era.

This will include encouraging and promoting virtual conferences, investing in digitisation and online learning for school children who will need to catch up with their education and slowly migrate to internet platforms, while the world battles to find a cure for Covid-19.

Experiences in the last year have shown that Africa and the world at large would need to prepare for major and future outbreaks of other diseases, and that alone requires investing in the health sector and planning for rainy days for its people.-herald.cl.zw