Mbire speaks at world economic forum
Jun 10, 2008
UGANDAN businessman, Charles Mbire, spoke about his anti-malaria campaign at the just-concluded World Economic Forum on Africa in South Africa.
By Vision Reporter
UGANDAN businessman, Charles Mbire, spoke about his anti-malaria campaign at the just-concluded World Economic Forum on Africa in South Africa.
The World Economic Forum on Africa was hosted in Cape Town, South Africa, from June 4 to 6.
Speaking on the subject “Malaria in Africa: What more, what next?†Mbire, who is also the chairman of MTN Uganda, outlined how he has set up a plantation in Kabale to grow the artemisia plant. The Artemisinin, which is extracted from the plant, is an ingredient in anti-malarial drugs.
Mbire told an audience that included Burundi president, Pierre Nkuruzinza, that by setting up the plantation and processing plant, he had reduced the cost of the drugs by producing one of the inputs locally.
While seeing his initiative as a corporate social responsibility play, he told the forum: “As a business, you have to think of people dying as the death of a potential market. If you ignore that, you are ignoring yourself and your future.â€
Mbire’s Afro Alpine Pharma company has a 250-acre nucleus plantation and outgrowers’ scheme, which covers 2000 acres. It is tended by 15,000 farmers.
The session, which was aimed at deepening the participants’ understanding of what has been done to roll back malaria, noted that a child dies every 30 seconds from the disease and there are 600 million new infections worldwide annually.
The speakers who shared the floor with Mbire were Awa Marie Coll-Seck, the executive director of Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Geneva, Glenn Denning, the director of the Millennium Development Goals Centre, Kenya, Brain Chituwo, the Zambia health minister.
UGANDAN businessman, Charles Mbire, spoke about his anti-malaria campaign at the just-concluded World Economic Forum on Africa in South Africa.
The World Economic Forum on Africa was hosted in Cape Town, South Africa, from June 4 to 6.
Speaking on the subject “Malaria in Africa: What more, what next?†Mbire, who is also the chairman of MTN Uganda, outlined how he has set up a plantation in Kabale to grow the artemisia plant. The Artemisinin, which is extracted from the plant, is an ingredient in anti-malarial drugs.
Mbire told an audience that included Burundi president, Pierre Nkuruzinza, that by setting up the plantation and processing plant, he had reduced the cost of the drugs by producing one of the inputs locally.
While seeing his initiative as a corporate social responsibility play, he told the forum: “As a business, you have to think of people dying as the death of a potential market. If you ignore that, you are ignoring yourself and your future.â€
Mbire’s Afro Alpine Pharma company has a 250-acre nucleus plantation and outgrowers’ scheme, which covers 2000 acres. It is tended by 15,000 farmers.
The session, which was aimed at deepening the participants’ understanding of what has been done to roll back malaria, noted that a child dies every 30 seconds from the disease and there are 600 million new infections worldwide annually.
The speakers who shared the floor with Mbire were Awa Marie Coll-Seck, the executive director of Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Geneva, Glenn Denning, the director of the Millennium Development Goals Centre, Kenya, Brain Chituwo, the Zambia health minister.