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As Covid-19 sweeps across the globe, one of the biggest questions in many minds is ‘how will this crisis affect Africa?’ (Nyenswah, 2020; Pillay, 2020; Wood, 2020; World Bank, 2020a). Fears abound that the pandemic will multiply and deepen existing socio-economic issues, such as high levels of unemployment, poverty, and inequality. Some speculations are stoked by geopolitical relations and partnerships that underpin the role of foreign powers, such as China, in Africa (Tremann, 2020). Other predictions consider the socio-cultural dimensions unique to the continent that would likely hamper extrapolations from Western or Eastern examples to date (Broadbent and Smart, 2020; Kaseje, 2020). Often these speculations are characterised by a sense of risk and a pessimistic outlook on Africa’s capacity to respond effectively to the threat posed by Covid-19 (Holmes et al., 2020). In this article we argue that many African governments have so far responded more proactively and effectively to Covid-19 than some governments in High Income Countries (HICs), and that much of this capacity to respond effectively can be explained by an existing culture of using evidence to inform policy decision-making.