The United Kingdom has approved Covid-19 Vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and will start distributing from next week. The approval by UK Regulatory authorities makes the country the first to approve the vaccine in the world.

The Vaccine is given in two shots (doses).

According to reports monitored by Nairametrics, the vaccine will be administered firstly to medical workers and home caregivers, frontline health workers, those aged 80 and above before being made available to the general public.

The vaccine was made by German company BioNTech in conjunction with US Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and is said to be 95% effective in preventing the disease. This is after it was tested on over 43, 000 people in the mandatory phase 3 trials.

The US Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing the vaccine and could also approve its usage later in the month.

What they are saying

A UK government spokesperson said:

“The vaccine will be made available across the UK from next week. The NHS has decades of experience in delivering large scale vaccination programmes and will begin putting their extensive preparations into action to provide care and support to all those eligible for vaccination.”

“I’m confident now, with the news today, that from spring — from Easter onwards — things are going to be better. We’re going to have a summer next year that everybody can enjoy.” Matt Hancock, UK health secretary.

The United Kingdom is said to have ordered over 357 million doses from seven manufacturers.

More to follow…

The latest COVID-19 daily update report as of November 28th, 2020 shows that there are cumulative confirmed cases of 1,411,393 in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Out of the growing number, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana top the list with a total of 1,095,410 confirmed cases, representing 77.6% whilst the other 41 member-countries of the sub-region contributed 22.4%.

According to the report, South Africa tops the list with a cumulative confirmed case of 785,153 (55.6%), followed by Ethiopia 109,247 (7.7%), Kenya 82,605 (5.9%), Nigeria 67,330 (4.8%), and Ghana 51,075 (3.6%).

What you should know

• There are 55 countries in Africa out of which 46 countries are from the sub-Saharan African region.
• There are cumulative confirmed cases of 2,137,871 and deaths of 51,248, CFR(Case fatality rate) of 2.4%.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are cumulative confirmed cases of 1,411,393 and deaths of 31,342, CFR of 2.2%.

(READ MORE: ECOWAS COVID-19: Nigeria drops to 7th position in recovery rate)

• The Sub-Saharan Africa cumulative confirmed cases and deaths represent 66% and 61.2% of entire Africa’s figure respectively.
• Chad with 6.1% topped the list on CFR, followed by Liberia with 5.2% and Sao Tome & Principe 4.8% with the least coming from Eritrea 0%, followed by Burundi 0.1%.
• 5 countries contributed to 84% of deaths in the region and they are South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Cameroon.
• South Africa tops the list of cumulative deaths with 21,439 (68%), followed by Ethiopia 1,701 (5.4%), Kenya 1,445 (4.67%), Nigeria 1,173 (3.7%), and Cameroon 462 (1.5%).
• The least in the cumulative confirmed case comes from Eritrea with 577 followed by Burundi 684 as well as in the least cumulative death of 0 for Eritrea and 1 for Burundi.

The market capitalization of Dangote Cement Plc increased from N2.73 trillion at the open of trade on the 2nd of November 2020, to N3.49 trillion at the close of trade on the 30th of November.

Further checks revealed that the market capitalization of Dangote Cement Plc increased by 28.13% during the period under review.

The drive behind the gains

It is important to note that the increase in Dangote Cement’s market capitalization was driven by the renewed buying interests by investors in key Nigerian stocks with huge values and impressive fundamentals.

This hunt for value on the bourse led to a wild increase in the share price and also the market capitalization of key companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in the month of November.

(READ MORE: Dangote Cement gains ₦273 billion on NSE since release of its 2020 Q3 report)

However, the renewed buying interest can be attributed to the strong performance which Dangote Cement displayed in the third quarter of 2020, despite the challenging macroeconomic environment.

Given the strategic positioning of the cement producer in the industry,

• Dangote cement reached a record high EBITDA margin of 24% in the third quarter of 2020.
• Group net profit of N82 billion, which is 135.1% higher than the profit reported by the Group in the third quarter of 2019.

This strong performance made analyst review their models, and also the Group’s valuation, this however triggered buying pressures in the shares of Dangote Cement, with its market capitalization increasing by 28.13% in the period under consideration.

What you should know

• Market capitalization is the aggregate valuation of a company based on its current share price and the total number of outstanding stocks.
• Market capitalization tells how much investors value a company, and gives an idea of what a company is worth on the stock exchange, as well as investors’ perception of a company’s future prospects.