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COVID-19 Update in Nigeria
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Business News
FG discloses plan to sell fuel at N97 per litre with new initiative
The Federal Government (FG) has disclosed plans to sell fuel at a reduced price of N97 per litre.
The Federal Government (FG) has disclosed plans to sell fuel at a reduced price of N97 per litre. This is because the government is considering encouraging the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as an alternative to Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol, for transportation.
This disclosure was made by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva while addressing newsmen in Abuja.
Sylva explained that payment of subsidy on petrol has created holes in the finances of the nation and as such the government needed to encourage Nigerians to start to use CNG. He said if this was used, it would crash the cost of transportation and eliminate the huge burden of subsidy payment.
Sylva also said that CNG costs less than the subsidized price for PMS. While PMS sells for N145 per litre, unit for unit, CNG costs between N95 and N97 per litre. This he said was a major advantage Nigerians should take into consideration.
[READ MORE: Economy: Will the FG tax reforms support revenues in 2020?)
The minister said, “If you ask me if we are thinking of reducing the pump price of fuel, I could easily say yes; and I am sure all of you would wonder why I said that. Why I could say yes, is that we are thinking of giving the masses an alternative. Today, we are all hooked on PMS, what we want to do going forward, is to see that we are able to move the masses to CNG. This is what I call the GSM treatment.
“What we decided is that we should try and give the masses an alternative. If we move the masses to CNG, that is, take transport vehicles in the first instance, for example, out of the PMS loop, and cause them to use CNG, you would see that it would become the point of contact of the poorest of the population, and even further down, take out a lot of people from the loop of PMS.”
“That is why I said we want to even reduce the cost of fuel. That way, we know we are giving an alternative and Nigerians would use it and would not notice when the subsidy of PMS is removed. That is the alternative we are working on, and we would start very soon to roll out.
“Already, there is a pilot programme in Benin City, which has worked for a long time. About 4,000 vehicles are already on CNG in Benin. We want to expand that CNG programme across the country and we believe it is going to create a lot of opportunities for Nigerians and also give Nigerians a new lease of life because the commodity would be accessible,” Sylva added.
Coronavirus
COVID-19 Update in Nigeria
On the 16th of January 2021, 1,598 new confirmed cases and 7 deaths were recorded in Nigeria
The spread of novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria continues to record significant increases as the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reveal Nigeria now has 108,943 confirmed cases.
On the 16th of January 2021, 1,598 new confirmed cases and 7 deaths were recorded in Nigeria.
To date, 108,943 cases have been confirmed, 85,367 cases have been discharged and 1,420 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. A total of 1.13 million tests have been carried out as of January 16th, 2021 compared to 1.03 million tests a day earlier.
COVID-19 Case Updates- 16th January 2021,
- Total Number of Cases – 108,943
- Total Number Discharged – 85,367
- Total Deaths – 1,420
- Total Tests Carried out – 1,135,535
According to the NCDC, the 1,598 new cases were reported from 24 states- Lagos (461), FCT (206), Plateau (197), Rivers (168), Kaduna (116), Anambra (53), Ogun (49), Ebonyi (47), Edo (42), Sokoto (32), Imo (31), Katsina (31), Oyo (30), Akwa Ibom (27), Delta (16), Kano (16), Abia (15), Niger (15), Ondo (11), Bayelsa (10), Borno (9), Kebbi (8), Ekiti (7), Jigawa (1).
Meanwhile, the latest numbers bring Lagos state total confirmed cases to 39,723, followed by Abuja (14,544), Plateau (6,617), Kaduna (6,121), Oyo (4,679), Rivers (4,382), Edo (3,246), Ogun (2,831), Kano (2,577), Delta (2,102), Ondo (2,070), Katsina (1,723), Enugu (1,583), Kwara (1,566), Gombe (1,489), Nasarawa (1,269), Ebonyi (1,206), Osun (1,186), Abia (1,129), and Bauchi (1,107).
Borno State has recorded 859 cases, Imo (841), Sokoto (677), Benue (653), Akwa Ibom (615), Bayelsa (608), Niger (547), Adamawa (540), Anambra (513), Ekiti (466), Jigawa (425), Taraba (258), Kebbi (248), Yobe (207), Cross River (169), Zamfara (162), while Kogi state has recorded 5 cases only.
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Lock Down and Curfew
In a move to combat the spread of the pandemic disease, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days, which took effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March 2020.
The movement restriction, which was extended by another two weeks period, has been partially put on hold with some businesses commencing operations from May 4. On April 27th, 2020, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari declared an overnight curfew from 8 pm to 6 am across the country, as part of new measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This comes along with the phased and gradual easing of lockdown measures in FCT, Lagos, and Ogun States, which took effect from Saturday, 2nd May 2020, at 9 am.
On Monday, 29th June 2020 the federal government extended the second phase of the eased lockdown by 4 weeks and approved interstate movement outside curfew hours with effect from July 1, 2020. Also, on Monday 27th July 2020, the federal government extended the second phase of eased lockdown by an additional one week.
On Thursday, 6th August 2020 the federal government through the secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 announced the extension of the second phase of eased lockdown by another four (4) weeks.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State announced the closed down of the Eti-Osa Isolation Centre, with effect from Friday, 31st July 2020. He also mentioned that the Agidingbi Isolation Centre would also be closed and the patients relocated to a large capacity centre.
Due to the increased number of covid-19 cases in Nigeria, the Nigerian government ordered the reopening of Isolation and treatment centres in the country on Thursday, 10th December 2020.
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Coronavirus
Combined Vaccine Manufacturing capacity to hit 6.8 billion doses in 2021
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity is expected to hit 6.8 billion doses in 2021.
Meristem Group disclosed that the combined effort in manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines for global use is expected to yield about 6.8 billion doses in 2021.
This was revealed in the Annual Outlook 2021 report presented by Meristem Group, titled “Bracing for a different future.”
According to the report, the existing manufacturing capacity will only be sufficient enough to immunize about 44% of the global population, which would create obvious vaccination gap and make the pandemic last longer than necessary.
The report states,
- “The cold temperature requirements for vaccine storage pose major logistics concern particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and other low-income countries. WHO estimates that about 50% of vaccines are wasted every year, largely due to a lack of temperature control.”
According to the report, the estimated 6.8billion doses are expected to be collaboratively manufactured as follows: CanSino – 0.2billion, AstraZeneca – 3.0 billion, Gamaleya – 0.3billion, Moderna – 0.4billion, Pfizer-BioNtech – 1.3billion, SinoPharm – 1billion, and SinoVac – 0.6billion.
What you should know
- The global population as of 2020 is 7.8billion and 70% is required to achieve herd immunity (otherwise called herd protection)
- Herd Immunity or herd protection is achieved when you have most of the population immunized against an infectious disease.
- 2 doses of the vaccines are required for each person for immunity.
- It is expected that between 11 and 15 billion doses would be required to achieve the desired herd immunity, globally.
- From all indications, herd immunity may not be achieved until mid or late 2022, with the subsisting 100% vaccine production capacity utilization in 2021 – with neither production nor distribution losses.
- To achieve regulatory approval, a vaccine must undergo a three-stage clinical development process after the exploratory and pre-clinical stages and the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets a phase 3 efficacy benchmark of 50%.
Ade Adebayo
January 17, 2020 at 3:23 pm
Please you cannot compare CNG to PMS. The two are not the same form or have same fuel value. What type of comparison/story is this?
Olawunmi Ojo
January 17, 2020 at 3:30 pm
The honourable minister did not mention conversion equipment needed to use CNG, the cost and who bears it.
Very easy to talk about the variable cost of conversion, how about the capital costs?
That’s why pms is easily the best available for now!
Banks Al
April 15, 2020 at 12:33 pm
Unbelievable, He says there are already on a pilot prog with almost 4000 vehicles in Benin on the CNG Prog. My God, this is Fantastic news, I am almost impressed but Lai Mohammed is his God Father.