At a forum to be held on November 8 at the Africa Union’s Addis Ababa Headquarter business leaders from around the continent pledged $28.5 million to fight the Ebola epidemic that has killed nearl 5,000 people in some west African countries and infected over 10,000 others, CCTV Africa reported.

The first payment of the new emergency fund will be used to train and send 1,000 health workers to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which have been adversely affected by the outbreak.

The African based companies are meeting  to deliberate on ways to mobilize more resources from within Africa to join national and international efforts on the ground, as well as discuss reversing the economic decline of the countries and post-Ebola recovery.

International efforts have already raised over $1 billion to fight the spread of the deadly virus, which started in March this year in a remote village in Guinea.

Companies that have pledged to raise the funds include Quality Group Tanzania, ARM South Africa, Econet Zimbabwe, Shoreline Energy International, Shoreline Power Company Limited, Kinneveck, and Kenya’s Top Telecoms provider Safaricom, among others.