Wealth Allocation and Determinants of Venture Capital among Poultry Agribusiness Entrepreneurs in Abia State, Nigeria

This study examined wealth allocation and determinants of venture capital among poultry entrepreneurs in AbiaState, Nigeria. It specifically examined the socio-economic characteristics of poultry agribusiness entrepreneurs,sources of venture capital, entrepreneurs’ wealth status, and factors influencing wealth allocation, factorsinfluencing venture capital and finally examined the relationship between wealth allocation and venture capital.A simple random sampling technique was used to select forty (40) poultry agribusiness entrepreneurs andinformation was solicited via the use of well structured questionnaire. The tools for data analyses weredescriptive statistics, pie chart, coefficient of correlation and multiple regression analyses. The result revealedthat most of the respondents were young, married and had household size ranging from 6 – 10 persons withbusiness experience of 11 – 20 years. Sources of venture capital were mainly formal source of venture capital.Farm size, access to credit, and value of stock, equity shares were significant and positive variables influencingwealth allocation while personal savings, value of assets and source of capital from financial institution wereobvious variables influencing venture capital negatively. There was a strong relationship between wealthallocation and venture capital. It is recommended that government and other stakeholders involved in theagribusiness sector should provide a better market for the enhancement of the entrepreneurs’ stock value withrespect to sales of product. Further, hitch free and adequate access to credit will to greater extent improve thewealth allocation statues and venture capital volume of the entrepreneurs

Epidemiology, diagnostics and factors associated with mortality during a cholera epidemic in Nigeria, October 2020-October 2021: a retrospective analysis of national surveillance data.

OBJECTIVES: Nigeria reported an upsurge in cholera cases in October 2020, which then transitioned into a large, disseminated epidemic for most of 2021. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology, diagnostic performance of rapid diagnostic test (RDT) kits and the factors associated with mortality during the epidemic. DESIGN: A retrospective analysis of national surveillance data. SETTING: 33 of 37 states (including the Federal Capital Territory) in Nigeria. PARTICIPANTS: Persons who met cholera case definition (a person of any age with acute watery diarrhoea, with or without vomiting) between October 2020 and October 2021 within the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control surveillance data. OUTCOME MEASURES: Attack rate (AR; per 100 000 persons), case fatality rate (CFR; %) and accuracy of RDT performance compared with culture using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). Additionally, individual factors associated with cholera deaths and hospitalisation were presented as adjusted OR with 95% CIs. RESULTS: Overall, 93 598 cholera cases and 3298 deaths (CFR: 3.5%) were reported across 33 of 37 states in Nigeria within the study period. The proportions of cholera cases were higher in men aged 5-14 years and women aged 25-44 years. The overall AR was 46.5 per 100 000 persons. The North-West region recorded the highest AR with 102 per 100 000. Older age, male gender, residency in the North-Central region and severe dehydration significantly increased the odds of cholera deaths. The cholera RDT had excellent diagnostic accuracy (AUROC=0.91; 95% CI 0.87 to 0.96). CONCLUSIONS: Cholera remains a serious public health threat in Nigeria with a high mortality rate. Thus, we recommend making RDT kits more widely accessible for improved surveillance and prompt case management across the country