Strict measures to fight the pandemic nearly brought domestic and international travels to a standstill in 2020. But despite the economic pressures felt by African airlines, there was a resolve for survival. Ethiopian airlines, Africa’s largest commercial airline, quickly diversified to cargo. It avoided seeking bailouts and laying-off full-time employees. In Northern Africa, Air Maroc offered free insurance packages to woe customers back into flight. Passenger traffic for air transport dropped at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The International Air Transport Association said traffic in Africa fell by 89 percent. Nevertheless, in spite of this drastic fall, carriers on the continent made tremendous strides to survive. Africa’s leading carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, managed to close the year with profits of around 2.85 billion euros at the end of June. It’s still a shortfall compared to the forecast of over 3 billion euros. Moroccan national carrier devised innovative ways to stay afloat as it was also hard hit by the global health crisis. Royal Air Maroc offered its customers free insurance with the purchase of a ticket, assuming the coverage of medical expenses of up to 150,000 euros in the event of coronavirus infections contracted during an international trip between December 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021.
Nigeria has traded over 60,000 bitcoins valued at more than $560 million. Why has the cryptocurrency become so popular? Transactions are stored in a database called blockchain- meaning they can happen anywhere in the world. Another reason is it cuts out banks and the middle man. This was useful during the police brutality protests in Nigeria in October 2020 when protesters could not use local payment platforms to collect donations, and so they switched to bitcoin. Bitcoin can also be cheaper as banks and international platforms can charge high fees for transactions. And if currencies are unstable or inflation is high, then people may prefer to switch to crypto which is not regulated by the government. Cryptocurrencies are expected to get even more popular on the continent especially with the growing generation of young entrepreneurs.