Tycoons asked to fund Ebola battle

THE African Union said it is seeking funding from some of the continent’s richest people, including Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, to pay the costs for volunteer doctors and nurses fighting Ebola in West Africa.

The continental bloc is seeking to raise $35 million in the first round and eventually as much as $100 million for the Business-to-Rescue Fund, said George Sibotshiwe, executive director of the African Democratic Institution which is coordinating a November 8 meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa to encourage businesspeople to donate. A campaign to ask for contributions from “citizens” will follow, he said.

Dangote, the chairman of Dangote Group in Nigeria, and Patrice Motsepe, chairman of Johannesburg-based African Rainbow Minerals Ltd. (ARI) are expected to attend the meeting, the African Union said in an e-mailed statement. Strive Masiyiwa, chairman of Econet Wireless International, Safaricom Ltd. of Kenya Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore, South Africa’s MTN Group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa, and CEO of Standard Bank Group Ltd. Sim Tshabalala also plan to join, the African Union said.

Among wealthy businesspeople already committing money to curb Ebola are Microsoft co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates and Facebook Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The world’s largest Ebola outbreak has killed almost 5,000 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since December. African Union member states have pledged to send at least 2,000 health workers to the three West African nations.

The World Bank estimates that about 5,000 international medical, training and support personnel are needed over the coming months to respond to the outbreak, including as many as 1,000 foreign-health workers to treat patients. — Bloomberg.