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Objectives: Evidence indicates that people living with HIV (PLHIV) are more impacted by COVID-19. The burden of SARS-CoV-2 infection among PLHIV is unknown in Nigeria. Methods: We conducted repeated cross-sectional SARS-CoV-2 serosurveys in 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria among PLHIV who had an HIV viral load (VL) test during April 2022 to January 2023. Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies was assessed using a multiplex bead assay to measure IgG to spike (S), receptor binding domain (RBD), and nucleocapsid (N) proteins to identify potential infection and/or vaccination status. Results: Between April 2022 and January 2023, 47,614 remnant VL samples were included and tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, defined as IgG antibodies to spike and RBD591 [S+] and nucleocapsid [N+], (S+N+), ranged between 21.1% (95% confidence intervals [CI]: 11.4-31.8) in Ekiti State in January 2023 to 71.4% (95% CI 71.9-81.9) in Gombe State in November 2022, with overall steady trends within and between states over time, across age and sex. Conclusion: High rates of SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence among PLHIV in Nigeria were observed. This underscores the need to understand the association between HIV and SARS-CoV-2 to inform strategies to reduce the threat posed by COVID-19.

This paper explores the dynamic link between financial development and innovation, while accounting for human capital and institutional quality for 29 OECD countries spanning 40 years (1980–2019). The findings based on Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) estimators show that trade, institutional quality, human capital and financial development promote innovation activities, while foreign direct investment has the opposite effect. Further, the findings show a non-linear relationship between finance and innovation.

The effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) and renewable energy on disaggregated carbon emissions are examined, while accounting for sectoral value additions and policy uncertainty for 29 sub-Saharan Africa countries. The findings that emanate from the study based on the General Method of Moments technique indicate that renewable energy has adverse effect on both territorial-based and consumption-based CO2 emissions while FDI has a significant positive effect only on territorial emission. Furthermore, the agricultural and industrial sectors in particular were found to have significant effects on CO2 emissions. Finally, policy uncertainty contributes to territorial based emissions but not consumption-based emissions. Thus, reducing policy uncertainties in the economies of SSA has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions.

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on CO2 emissions by using disaggregated emissions data; territorial-based and consumption-based emissions. FDI is measured in three ways; inflow, net inflow, and stock. Employing data over the period 1995–2014 and a number of estimators, the results indicate FDI (whether measured as inflow or net inflow) has negative impact on emissions (irrespective of the measurement). However, the impact is generally found to be greater for the territorial-based emissions. The results of the FDI flow variables largely support the pollution halo hypothesis. Thus, the results are supportive of the robust effect of FDI’s positive effect. Regarding the stock measure, the negative effect of FDI is only found for the territorial-based CO2 emissions. Since the territorial-based emissions capture emissions in the domestic economy only, it is not surprising that the plausible efficiency of FDI stock is found to reduce these emissions rather the consumption-based. FDI stock is now considered part of the local economy. The results of the paper are largely not parallel with previous studies that did not disaggregate CO2 emissions. This we believe is an indication that the measure of CO2 matters for the analyses of the FDI-emissions nexus.

Consistent with the Sustainable Development Goal 7 of ensuring access to clean and modern energy technologies, this study examined the nexus between access to electricity, human development index, political system environment, income level, and income inequality. We employed a nonparametric regression technique with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors from 1990 to 2017 in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study revealed that income inequality has a negative effect on access to electricity whereas income level and human development have a positive impact on access to electricity. Enhancing the political system environment in Sub-Saharan Africa is crucial to ensuring access to clean and modern electricity. The negative effect of political system on income inequality means that good governance environment reduces income inequality. Income inequality is found to reduce human development, as such, social protection policies that reduce poverty are essential to minimize the vulnerability to poverty. The study highlights that the effective promotion of labor markets and the improvement of socio-economic capacity to manage unemployment, infirmity, and disability will decrease income inequality, hence, promote human development.

The ICT, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) relationship is examined for South Africa spanning the period 1970–2019, while controlling for the effects of financial development. The findings of the study based on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) estimators show that ICT and fossil fuel consumption contribute to carbon dioxide emissions, while renewable energy consumption and financial development reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Specifically, the results show that a 1% increase in ICT activities will increase CO2 emissions by 0.565% in the long-term, and any temporary shock to this long-run relationship is corrected by 93.20%. Further, there is no evidence of threshold effect of ICT on carbon emissions.

Healthcare professionals are the most vulnerable to stress among all occupational groups due to the nature of their work environment. The aim of this study is to determine the level of stress and associated factors among healthcare workers in Western Ghana. The study employed a cross-sectional design with self-administered questionnaires. The results show that 69.5% of the respondents were stressed. Prevalence of stress was higher among female respondents than males. We found that 40.4 % of respondents intend to change work as a result of stress faced at their work places. Respondents aged 56≥ were more (3.16) likely to be stressed than those in the other age groups. We found a significant association between age, marital status, workload and educational background and stress levels among the respondents. The management of these healthcare institutions and their stakeholders must adopt strategies to help health workers cope with the stress they encounter.

This paper employed the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology to examine the effect of electricity transmission and distribution losses (ETL) on the economic growth of South Africa over the period 1971–2014. After controlling for foreign direct investment (FDI) and financial development, the results of the study show long-run negative relationship between ETL and economic growth. For robustness checks, we account for non-linearities/asymmetries in our model and find that a percentage increase in ETL decreases economic growth from 3.786% to 2.245%. The correction of the distortions of the convergence to long-run equilibrium by temporary shocks is reduced from 30.4% to 25.1%. Additionally, financial development and gross fixed capital formation promote growth while FDI and trade have insignificant effect.

Access to modern energy services including electricity is fundamental to fulfilling basic social needs, driving economic growth and fueling human development, hence, the pathway out of poverty to prosperity. This study examined the impact of income level, inequality in the distribution of income and the control of corruption on access to electricity from 1990-2017 in South Africa, using Bayesian and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) estimation approach. The long-run asymmetric effects of income level reveal a positive impact on electricity access, thus, validating the initial positive symmetric effect. While income inequality has positive effect on accessibility, corruption appears to hinder the roadmap towards achieving energy for all. Even though economic development is crucial to materialize access to electricity, yet, efficient and effective financing and investment climate alone are not enough to warrant energy security, but, right policies, good governance and institutional quality.