On the search for environmental sustainability in Africa: the role of governance.

Africa remains the most affected by environmental degradation, thereby exacerbating the negative effect of climate change in the region. Little empirical credence has been leaned to the institution-environmental sustainability relationship in Africa. This omission in the literature of environmental sustainability is abysmal, considering the role of institutions and government in ecological preservation. To inform policy and research on the subject matter, we estimated a unbalanced panel data of the indices of good governance and strong institutions to explain transformation to environmental sustainability using the dynamic system generalised method of moment estimator from 1996 through 2017. Findings suggested a positive relationship between the rule of law and regulatory quality and transformation to environmental sustainability. An inverse relationship between government effectiveness and environmental sustainability was established. We recommended concerted effort at an institutional level such that policy and punishment for violation of greenhouse strategies will be optimum.

Fuel subsidies and carbon emission: evidence from asymmetric modelling.

It is expected that fuel subsidy removal should hinder carbon emissions growth through low energy consumption channels amid higher energy prices. However, outliers in this theoretical disposition make empirical proof of the fuel subsidy-carbon intensity apt and primitive. Despite established fuel subsidy abolishment gains for climate and economic welfare, the relevance, magnitude and policy implications remain dimly. This paper employs the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) estimation procedure to gauge the contemporaneous influence of fuel subsidy for carbon intensity in Nigeria. Findings revealed that fuel subsidy removal inversely relates to Nigeria's carbon emission in the short run and long run. The study recommends a complementary policy option that ensures additional financial savings to the government should be invested in public sector growth that can cushion the effect of relative income loss to the citizenry. The Nigerian government should ensure measures are kept in place to discourage overconsumption of alternative energy (for example coal) that could also threaten the green economy paradox.

Spatio-temporal analysis of meteorological factors in abating the spread of COVID-19 in Africa.

In Asia, Europe and South America, the role of atmospheric condition in aiding or abating the growth curve of COVID-19 has been analysed. However, no study to date has examined such climatic extensions for the growth or otherwise of the novel coronavirus in Africa. Africa, with a mostly relatively warmer temperature differs from other regions of the world and in addition, has recorded far fewer cases compared to Asian, Europeans and the Americans (North and South). It then becomes imperative to examine the influence of meteorological indices in the growth or otherwise of coronavirus diseases in Africa to establish whether findings on the climatic conditions-COVID-19 growth are regionally specific. In this study, we examined the influence of meteorological factors for aiding or abating the spread of the aerosolised pathogen of COVID-19 in Africa. We rely on the generalised additive model (GAM) and found wind speed to positively relate to COVID-19 growth while mean temperature and relative humidity to inversely relates to COVID-19 growth curve in Africa. We accounted for potential cofounders in the core GAM model and discuss policy implications.

Modelling spatial variations of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Africa.

Clinical and epidemiological evidence has been advanced for human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus rampaging the world since late 2019. Outliers in the human-to-human transmission are yet to be explored. In this study, we examined the spatial density and leaned statistical credence to the global debate. We constructed spatial variations of clusters that examined the nexus between COVID-19 attributable deaths and confirmed cases. We rely on publicly available data on confirmed cases and death across Africa to unravel the unobserved factors, that could be responsible for the spread of COVID-19. We relied on the dynamic system generalised method of moment estimation procedure and found a ~0.045 Covid19 deaths as a result of confirmed cases in Africa. We accounted for cross-sectional dependence and found a basis for the strict orthogonal relationship. Policy measures were discussed.

Mathematical modeling for infectious viral disease: The COVID-19 perspective.

In this study, we examined various forms of mathematical models that are relevant for the containment, risk analysis, and features of COVID-19. Greater emphasis was laid on the extension of the Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) models for policy relevance in the time of COVID-19. These mathematical models play a significant role in the understanding of COVID-19 transmission mechanisms, structures, and features. Considering that the disease has spread sporadically around the world, causing large scale socioeconomic disruption unwitnessed in contemporary ages since World War II, researchers, stakeholders, government, and the society at large are actively engaged in finding ways to reduce the rate of infection until a cure or vaccination procedure is established. We advanced argument for the various forms of the mathematical model of epidemics and highlighted their relevance in the containment of COVID-19 at the present time. Mathematical models address the need for understanding the transmission dynamics and other significant factors of the disease that would aid policymakers to make accurate decisions and reduce the rate of transmission of the disease.

Gauging the laboratory responses to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Africa.

The rampaging effect of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Africa is huge and have impacted almost every area of life. Across African states, there exist variations in the laboratory measures adopted, and these heterogeneous approaches, in turn, determines the successes or otherwise recorded. In this study, we assessed the various forms of laboratory responses to the containment, risk analyses, structures and features of COVID-19 in high incidence African countries (Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria, Morocco, etc.) to aid better and efficient laboratory responses to the highly infectious diseases.