PwC Joins Trust In Fight Against Ebola

THE Africa Against Ebola Solidarity Trust, a private sector initiative, has announced that PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has joined leading African businesses in support of the African Union Support for Ebola in West Africa (ASEOWA) programme. 

    The Trust, in a recent statement, hinted that to date, close to 1,000 African health workers have been deployed to combat Ebola in the most affected countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

    PwC, it said, will provide financial and risk management, and fund administration services to the Trust, at a significant discount to their normal fees, as part of their ‘in-kind’ contribution to the initiative.    It cited the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as saying: “When African businessmen gathered in Addis Ababa on November, 8, 2014 and pledged to partner us in eradicating this dreadful disease, I requested from them not only cash, but also their competences in project management, logistics, financial management and governance.” 

    The Trust includes Africa’s leading entrepreneurs, such as Aliko Dangote (Dangote Group), Strive Masiyiwa (Econet Wireless), Phuthuma Nhleko (MTN), Patrice Motsepe (African Rainbow Minerals), Cristina Stenberg (Kinnevik) and Yusuf Manji (The Quality Group), as well as top companies like Nedbank, Standard Chartered Bank and Old Mutual.

    The Trust said its ultimate goal is to build a resilient Africa, with the capacity to respond rapidly to pandemics. 

    The Chairman and Founder of Econet Wireless Mr. Strive Masiyiwa, said: “We seek not only to confront Ebola today, but to ensure that the pandemic does not resurface tomorrow. We fully support the AU’s efforts to bolster Africa’s health services infrastructure to address fault lines that make such epidemics not only possible, but probable.”

    PwC’s support for the initiative, according to the statement, stems from its commitment to Africa’s future. 

    Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PwC Africa, Suresh Kana, noted: “The livelihood of our West Africa region is dependent upon not only addressing the current Ebola crisis, but also on putting in place sustainable measures to prevent future outbreaks. We are honored to play a role in supporting the Trust and the AU in their efforts.”

      According to the Trust, professional service firms who joined the initiative last year include, Deloitte, which pledged to serve as the Trust’s independent auditors for free; Apple by Global, which has provided discounted legal and trust management services, and Standard Chartered Bank, which has made its pan-African banking services network available to the Trust.