• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Five Things to Know to Start Your Day

Five things to know to start your day

Nigeria, others for clinical trials on novel Lassa fever vaccine

A novel vaccine candidate to prevent Lassa fever is set for second round of clinical trials on adults and children in Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This is with the support of Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).

Both bodies, yesterday, confirmed they jointly awarded €22.8 million to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) for the exercise.

A statement by EDCTP, European Union (EU), CEPI and IAVI stated: “The joint award supports an international collaboration, called Lassa Fever Vaccine Efficacy and Prevention for West Africa (LEAP4WA). It would be used to conduct a Phase IIb clinical trial of IAVI’s Lassa fever vaccine candidate among adults and children in Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Ardova Plc buys out 100% stake in Enyo Retail and Supply Limited

Ardova Plc has completed the acquisition of a 100% equity stake in Enyo Retail and Supply Limited.

Recall that in January, Ardova Plc had announced entering into discussions with the shareholders of Enyo, in a bid to take over the assets of the latter.

Read Also: To reduce inflation, poverty, Nigeria needs to focus on these 6 areas

The firm further revealed that the shareholders of Enyo had accepted its offer and acquisition framework in principle, although subject to the successful completion of a due diligence exercise and the receipt of all required regulatory approvals.

After this, the parties involved in the deal reiterated their commitments towards finalizing the transaction, in line with the share purchase agreement.

They also promised to remain transparent in terms of communicating details about the future progress made on the deal.

Despite border closure, multiple bans and severe pains, Nigeria spends N3.1 trillion on Agric import in 2 years

Nigeria’s agricultural import continues to skyrocket despite the significant funding received by the sector and various measures put in place by the federal government to increase the agricultural productivity in the country.

According to the recently published foreign trade report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s agricultural import spiked by 140% year-on-year in Q1 2021. Nigeria imported agricultural items worth N630.18 billion in the period compared to N262.1 billion in Q1 2020.

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg is 7 times richer than Africa’s richest man

Mark Zuckerberg, the 37-year-old billionaire popularly known for rejecting job offers at Microsoft and AOL before graduating from high school, has seen his wealth surge by about $22 billion from the start of 2021 alone, putting him in a valuation of $125 billion.

The founder of Facebook is now 7 times richer than Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, whose net worth at the time of filing this report stood at $17.4 billion.

Zuckerberg is the tech genius behind the world’s most valuable social media company. At the time of writing this report, the social media giant reportedly earned $86 billion in revenue for 2020 and boasts about 3 billion monthly users.

Oil prices surge to highest since 2018 on huge inventory draw

Crude oil prices rose to the highest level since 2018 after a report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Wednesday showed a substantial draw in US crude oil inventories of 8.537-million barrels for the week ending June 11.

This is an indication of a tightening market as major economies continue to reopen from the Covid-19 lockdown, assisted by the coronavirus vaccination programmes.