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The African Philanthropy Network says: “African philanthropy means resources- nature, human, financial, social, intellectual that can be tapped into addressing Africa’s challenges.” They further describe that African philanthropy is equated to citizen agency, which is the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own choices. As we have seen on the ground, African philanthropy includes: foundations and funds; family and community based; individual giving; collective solidarity mechanisms – in cash, in-kind, or in time; and, social investments.
African philanthropy is generally characterised by all vertical and horizontal dimensions of giving of private resources for the common good, and it cannot be defined by a single culture or model of giving.
The past two years have been a difficult space for Africa. We saw the global pandemic cripple many countries globally and unending lockdowns becoming the order of the day. Unlike the Ebola threat that was curtailed, the novel coronavirus threatened the whole world and spread rapidly, mutating as it went. During this time, we saw a varied but critical global philanthropic response.
According to an article written for McKinsey: “The philanthropic response to the COVID-19 pandemic showcased the sector at its best. From the launch of community-based rapid-response funds to the development of diagnostics and vaccines, philanthropy showed up both to help flatten the curve in the short term and to address the inequities the crisis will exacerbate over the long term.” Meanwhile, the Milken Institute noted in its webinar titled, “Lessons Learned: Examining the Philanthropic Response to COVID-19,” that, according to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, philanthropists worldwide responded to COVID at levels that were of a magnitude higher than any other humanitarian crisis.
Historically, African donors have been known to rally and support relief situations. Research by The BridgeSpan Group explored a five-country sample of 63 gifts of +$1 million given by African philanthropic families and donors. Eighteen of these gifts (roughly 30 percent) were in response to natural disasters (floods, famine, fires, cyclones) and disease outbreaks (Ebola and cholera).
These gifts totalled $130 million, which is roughly 13 percent of the $1-billion total value of gifts in our sample. (The five countries in the selection were Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.) Additionally, donations to disaster relief reflected a critical exception to the prevalence of giving within the donor’s home country.
For example, in 2018, Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwa, London-based Zimbabwean philanthropists, made an emergency donation of $10 million through their company, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, at the onset of the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe. The following year, they made a $60-million follow-up gift that went beyond emergency aid to support a multiyear effort to eliminate water-borne diseases in the country. In effect, a longer-term effort designed to bring a more lasting solution to the initial problem.
Another example is the 2015 donation of $5 million from the Dangote Foundation in Nigeria to the African Union’s Ebola Fund, distributed across multiple West African countries fighting outbreaks of the disease. The Ebola outbreaks in West Africa drew significant donations from philanthropists across the continent.
Building off of this precedent of philanthropic leadership in the face of disaster relief, African donors from across the continent gave significant donations to address the COVID‐19 crisis. While not an exhaustive list, some of the notable gifts given by philanthropic families include:
- In South Africa, billionaires Patrice Motsepe, Nicky Oppenheimer, Johann Rupert and Mary Oppenheimer each pledged $57 million to assist with the pandemic and its related challenges in South Africa;
- Michiel le Roux, one of the founding directors of the hugely successful Capitec Bank, donated R100 million to fight the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on South Africa;
- A further $9.7 million was committed through philanthropic entities linked to the late billionaire Allan Gray.
The ELMA South Africa Foundation announced a gift of $13.3 million to the country’s Solidarity Fund. And many corporates have also made significant contributions in South Africa, including more than $84 million committed by Naspers to the fund.
In Nigeria, Tony Elumelu donated $14 million through United Bank for Africa to COVID‐19 response across 20 African countries, including $500,000 earmarked for research at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
Billionaire Aliko Dangote committed more than $5 million through a newly‐established coalition, CACOVID (Coalition Against COVID-19), which he leads. CACOVID mobilised $55.7 million in total donations from members, including Abdul Samad Rabiu (BUA Sugar), Jim Ovia (Zenith Bank), Oba Otudeko (First Bank of Nigeria), Herbert Wigwe (Access Bank), Femi Otedola (Amperion Power), Raj Gupta (African Steel Mills, Segun Agbaje (Guaranty Trust Bank), the Alakija family (Famfa Oil Limited), Deji Adeleke (Pacific Holdings), Rahul Savara (Wacot Rice), John Coumantatous (Flour Mills), MTN Nigeria and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
Billionaire Mike Adenuga donated $3.9 million to the federal and state government, and Rabiu donated $2.6 million to COVID-19 relief, while also providing testing kits and medical supplies to nine states in Nigeria.
In Zimbabwe, Strive, and Tsitsi Masiyiwa donated 45 ventilators to address acute shortages in medical equipment, and Masiyiwa’s Econet Group provided additional support to healthcare workers (ranging from clothing, insurance, cash and transportation). Strive also took up the call and was appointed the AU special envoy on COVID-19 and head of the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team.
Congolese basketball player Bismack Biyombo donated 10,000 face masks and 780 protective hazmat suits to assist his native Democratic Republic of the Congo.
And, in Kenya, Equity Group Foundation committed more than $11 million to support relief efforts and frontline medical staff — with assistance from Equity Bank, Mastercard Foundation and the family of senior Kenyan banking executive Dr. James Mwangi.
This COVID-19 response shows that wealthy Africans were making commitments in dollars and in time, influence and resources to ensure that Africa had the assistance needed.
While this pandemic was something entirely new and it blind-sighted the world, the philanthropic response aptly reflected and continues to reflect a history of giving by African donors towards disaster relief.
Tsitsi Mutendi is a co-founder of African Family Firms, an organization that aims to facilitate the continuity of African family businesses across generations. She is also the lead consultant at Nhaka Legacy Planning and the host of the Enterprising Families Podcast.
