The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest health crisis to hit the world in the past 100 years. The first case of COVID-19 in Africa was reported on 14 February 2020, and within three months, the virus had reached every country on the continent (WHO, 2020). The World Health Organization declared it a global pandemic in March 2020.

It was soon evident that the pandemic was not just a severe health emergency but also a grave socioeconomic crisis with an unprecedented global spread that presented a serious, almost existential, challenge to every country in the world.