Ebola: Nigeria offers recipe for success to ECOWAS

Nigeria at the extraordinary meeting of the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) heads of state and government sold its recipe for the successful curbing of the spread of the Ebola epidemic.

This is even as President Goodluck Jonathan stated that the Nigerian government is making all efforts to ensure that Nigeria remains permanently Ebola free.

Speaking at the summit, President Jonathan, who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, said Nigeria was not only looking out for herself but assisting other affected nations in the sub-region to fight the dreaded epidemic.

Nigeria is currently working on

World Bank provides $400m to tackle Ebola

Following alarming evidence of the spread of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the World Bank Group has announced that it will nearly double its financing to $400 million to help the worst-affected countries address the emergency and build stronger health systems for the years ahead.

This represents $170 million in new funding. With this announcement, the bank will put $230 million toward the emergency response and $170 million for medium- and long-term projects.

The new resources – which the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors will consider in the coming weeks – will be targeted at rapidly increasing the health care workforce and purchasing needed supplies in order to bring care and treatment to all parts of the affected countries.

The funding also is aimed at

Ebola could strike 20,000 in six weeks, "rumble on for years" - study

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa could infect 20,000 people as soon as early November unless rigorous infection control measures are implemented, and might "rumble on" for years in a holding pattern, researchers said on Tuesday.

In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, experts from the World Health Organization and Imperial College said that infections will continue climbing exponentially unless patients are isolated, contacts traced and communities enlisted.

The WHO, in an initial roadmap issued on Aug 28, predicted that the virus could strike 20,000 people within the next nine months. The current death toll is at least 2,811 out of 5,864 cases, the U.N. agency says.

The latest study, marking six months from March 23, when the WHO says it was informed of the Ebola outbreak in southeastern Guinea, reflects projections based on the data from a third wave of the virus in Guinea, Sierra Leone and worst-hit Liberia.

"With exponential growth, you'll see that

West African Crude: Nigerian differentials lifted by higher refinery margins

Differentials for Nigerian crude oil held above the lows set last month, supported by higher refining margins in Europe, traders said on Friday.

Nigerian crude oil is favoured by European refiners as it is light and sweet in quality, suiting the relatively unsophisticated plants in the region.

Poor margins and sluggish demand in Europe had pushed differentials of the benchmark Qua Iboe grade of crude oil to below $1 above dated Brent for some August and September barrels, but they have recovered for October cargoes.

However refining margins have recovered to nearly

US CDC in talks with Nigeria over human trial of Ebola vaccine

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in USA are in talks with health officials in Nigeria about the prospects for conducting a phase 1 safety study of the Ebola vaccine among healthy adults in the country amid mounting anxiety about the spread of the deadly virus in West Africa, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The pace of human safety testing for experimental Ebola vaccines has been expedited in response to the ongoing virus outbreak in West Africa which has impacted negatively on businesses in the three affected countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, with neighbouring countries closing their borders and banning flights from affected countries to other parts of Africa.

NIH explained that

Over 57% of West Africans lack access to electricity

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has said that more than 57 per cent of the people in West Africa are without access to electricity. The bank stated this in its “West Africa Monitor Quarterly”, for the second quarter of 2014 report.

It said that the percentage approximated the average for sub-Saharan Africa,” but extremely low compared with 23 per cent in the developing world and 18 per cent globally.”

According to the report, with inadequate generation capacity, low electrification, and sporadic, unreliable and expensive service, energy is at the top of questions requiring adequate policy intervention.

It explained that access rates varied from country to country, with eight per cent in Niger and 15 per cent in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau. The report added that