COVID-19 update
Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control on Monday confirmed 242 new cases of Covid-19 giving a total of 4641, but with a significant narrowing in the number of states reporting the incidence, and the gap between Lagos and Kano states.
Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, led with 88 cases but was closely followed by Kano with 64 cases. A spate of deaths in Kano, initially dubbed ‘mysterious deaths’ have been confirmed to be linked to the virus.
Only 13 states and the Federal Capital Territory reported new cases, according to the NCDC. The figures for the others were as follows: 49-Katsina, 13-Kaduna, 9-Ogun, 6-Gombe, 4-Adamawa, 3-FCT, 1-Ondo, 1-Oyo, 1–Rivers, 1-Zamfara, 1-Borno, and 1-Bauchi.
NCDC said 902 patients have been treated and discharged, while the death toll has climbed to 150.
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Nigeria to try out Madagascar’s herbal COVID-19 drug
President Muhammadu Buhari has given his approval for Madagascar’s herbal syrup, touted to be a COVID-19 cure, to be brought into the country and tested for potential use and local production.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha journalists yesterday that President Buhari has asked the task force to make arrangements freight home Nigeria’s allocation of the drug donated by Madagascar.
“Certain allocations have been made to different countries. We have an indication of the quantity that has been allocated to Nigeria and we are supposed to make arrangements to freight it out of Guinea-Bissau to Nigeria,” said Mustapha.
Mustapha said the drug would be subjected to the validation process similar to what would happen to any other medicine or syrup or vaccine that is discovered or created internally.
Ajaokuta Revival
The FG has inaugurated a committee to kick start the process of re-directing the activities of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant to bring the Steel Project back to life for the growth and economic development of Nigeria, it said on Monday.
“The Ajaokuta Steel plant has languished in economic unproductivity for about four decades, and previous efforts at reviving it had proved abortive. This has resulted in avoidable massive foreign exchange losses at an intolerable opportunity cost to the country,” said SGF Boss Mustapha.
Nigeria’s interest in making the steel plant work, after about forty years of redundancy, comes as oil market hits rock-bottom.
Mustapha said Nigeria plans to become West Africa’s largest fully integrated steel producer and the project would help boost the country’s industrialization goal.
Last year, President Buhari held bilateral discussions with Russia on the revival of the Ajaokuta Steel Project.
The SGF said the steel plant is to be resuscitated on the basis of a Government-to-Government agreement with funding from the Afreximbank and the Russian Export Centre.
Saudi Arabia promises additional 1mpd cut
Oil price rose on Monday after Saudi Arabia announced an additional 1 million barrels oil-production cut to slash output to the lowest in 18 years to ease a global supply glut that has ravaged prices this year. Beginning on June 1, the Kingdom will cut output by an additional 1 million bpd, it said.
“This brings the total production cut that will be carried out by the Kingdom, to around 4.8 million barrels per day, from the April production level,” a Saudi energy ministry official said. “Therefore, the Kingdom’s production for June, after both its targeted and voluntary cuts, will be 7.492 million barrels per day.”
Brent price has briefly rose above $30 per barrel mark on the futures market although price dipped back below the mark in early trade.
Read also: On the shape of Nigeria’s post-COVID-19 future
Cheap Nigerian Stocks outperform African Peers amid Rebound from Virus
Nigerian Stocks are leading continental peers amid a rebound from heavy losses due to a double whammy of record oil price declines and coronavirus-induced lockdowns that had pushed stocks into a bear market territory.
The Lagos bourse had cut year’s losses to near single digit on Monday, thanks to its stellar performance since April which has seen Nigerian stocks ahead of other African bellwethers.
Nigerian stocks still down -10.78% was ahead of South Africa (-11.49%), Egypt (-26.57%), Kenya (-15.48%) and Morocco (-22.5%) after trading closed in Lagos on Monday.
In the last one month, Nigerian stocks have gained 12% compared to South Africa’s 5%, Kenya’s 7%, Morocco’s 2% and Bloomberg’s Africa/Middle East tracker which is up 2%.
After a depressing March, Nigerian stocks last month showed resilience in the face of severe disruption to economic activities due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As a result, the domestic bourse in April saw its best performance since January, with local investors as net buyers, taking advantage of cheap valuations in the market and positioning for dividend payments.
Wahab Mustapha, Senior Analyst, Equity Research at Lagos-based Cordros Capital Ltd told BusinessDay last week that March’s sell-off was overdone and the stock market is in a stronger position “compared to the COVID-19 induced sell-off, where we are coming from,” he said.
