Lagos concludes initial vaccine rollout, to begin administering second dose May 28
After vaccinating over 257,000 people against COVID-19, Lagos has brought the rollout of first jabs to an end. This follows the federal government’s directive to stop vaccination once half of the consignment has been administered. The remaining doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine have been reserved at the Lagos State Cold Chain Store for the rollout of second dose, which will commence from May 28, following the expiration of the 8-12 weeks interval as required by the manufacturers. Lagos State was allotted 507,000 doses of the 3.92 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID vaccine donated to Nigeria through COVAX facility, the global initiative for equitable distribution of COVID vaccines.
Germany also chooses Ghana over Nigeria as West African centre of Global Health
Just when the dust was yet to settle on Twitter’s choice of Ghana over Nigeria for its African headquarters, Germany also revealed it will support the launch of a German-West African Centre for Global Health and Pandemic Prevention in Accra, capital of Ghana. This time again, not in Nigeria. Christoph Retzlaff, German ambassador to Ghana, announced in a tweet that the centre located in Ghana is one of eight others worldwide.
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Deborah Ojengbede, a 27-year-old female ex-banker raised 1 million dollars for her tech
Deborah Ojengbede in a glass shattering move has raised a whopping $1 million dollars for her Tech startup company, AFEN. AFEN, the first government-backed NFT initiative, held one of the quickest public sales in the crypto space on April 20th, 2021. Raising over a million dollars in her token’s sales round. Ojengbede, Chief Executive Officer of the AFEN group and a former banker, is in charge of the NFT initiative. The 27-year-old CEO resigned from her job as a business analyst at a top Nigerian bank, where she had worked for the previous five years. Following that, she began pursuing her crypto aspirations, giving birth to AFEN, the groundbreaking platform for the digitization of African arts, real estate, and education.
Derek Chauvin found guilty of all murder and manslaughter charges for the killing of George Floyd
After almost a year that Derek Chauvin was filmed kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during his arrest, the US jury has found him guilty of murder. The widely watched footage sparked worldwide protests against racism and excessive use of force by police. Chauvin was found guilty on three charges: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. His bail was immediately revoked and he was placed in custody. Sentencing is likely to happen in two months, and Chauvin could spend decades in jail. In Minnesota where the case was judged, second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Third-degree murder is punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Second-degree manslaughter is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Chad’s President Idriss Deby killed on the frontline clashes with rebels
Chad’s longtime President Idriss Deby has died of wounds suffered on the front line in the country’s north, where he had gone to visit soldiers battling rebels. The rebels, who have been seeking to oust Deby since 2016, had claimed a number of victories in the past week and clashes were reported in the north of the country at the weekend. The shock announcement came a day after Deby, who came to power in a rebellion in 1990, won a sixth term. Provisional results released on Monday showed Deby had taken 79.3 percent of the vote. A military council led by the late president’s 37-year-old son, four-star General Mahamat Idriss Deby, would replace him.
Nigerian fintech Okra raises $3.5M backed by Accenture Ventures and Susa Ventures
Nigerian API fintech startup, Okra, has raised a $3.5 seed investment barely one year after its $1 million pre-seed round. US-based Susa Ventures led this seed round, with global consulting firm, Accenture Ventures, investing in an African startup for the first time. Other participating angel investors include Rob Solomon, GoFundMe Chairman; and Arpan Shah and Hongxia Zhong, former founding engineers at Robinhood. Okra’s API infrastructure has grown since its launch in January 2020. It currently boasts of serving over 100 digital businesses, financial institutions, government agencies, and fintech companies, including Interswitch, Access Bank, uLesson, and Aella App.
Brazil, India now epicentre of the coronavirus scourge
While most countries are seeing the number of Covid cases drop, India and Brazil are having the worst time. India’s rapidly worsening coronavirus outbreak is now expanding on a scale beyond any previously measured in more than a year of the pandemic: The health ministry reported a world record of 312,731 new infections on Thursday, the most recorded in any country on a single day. Over the past two months, the outbreak in India has exploded, with reports of superspreader gatherings, oxygen shortages and ambulances lined up outside hospitals because there were no ventilators for new patients. Brazil also has become the second nation to go beyond the 4,000 daily death toll as a result of the covid-19 virus. The country, as of March 2021 contends with over 7.9 million cases and over 200,000 deaths.
