Blue String Ventures is known for squatting on domain names and selling them to the highest bidder. Last week it sold Ebola.com for US$200,000 to Weed Growth Fund. This is one of the numerous ways in which some companies and individuals are making returns from the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa and some other parts of the world.
From the 15th to 17th of October 2014, Medic West Africa, the largest medical exhibition event in West Africa was held at Eko Hotels and Towers in Lagos, Nigeria. The annual event which is regularly attended by exhibitors from within and outside Nigeria this year recorded several cancellations by scheduled exhibitors who were scared of the Ebola virus disease in the West African sub-region. A member of the organizing team who spoke under condition of anonymity said the outbreak had a major impact on the exhibition.
“Even though Ebola is under control in Nigeria, many of our exhibitors still cancelled. I guess they are just avoiding West Africa in general,” he said.
Although the organizers complained of low turnout of foreign exhibitors, Nigerian companies that participated in the exhibition expressed satisfaction with their performances. Obidigbo Ahubarezeama, chief executive officer of Synapse Biotech Ltd said the impact of the Ebola virus outbreak on the exhibition was a welcome development for local exhibitors.
“The Ebola outbreak actually worked in favor of local exhibitors in Nigeria, especially the smaller ones that couldn’t compete on the same level as the foreign companies that regularly exhibit at Medic West Africa and other exhibitions annually,” he told AFKInsider.
Since a good number of the foreign exhibitors didn’t participate, he said, individuals, institutions and organizations that attended with the aim of making purchases had no other choice than to patronize local exhibitors.
“Moreover, we are the ones they can easily call when something goes wrong with what they bought from us. But for the foreign exhibitors they may have to ship and pay hefty fees in foreign exchange. I expect all Nigerian exhibitors at the exhibition to experience turn around for good in their businesses within the next three months,” he said.
Another set of individuals that are enjoying booming businesses are those that are selling infrared thermometers. Before the emergence of the Ebola virus disease in Nigeria, the mercury-in-glass thermometer was a widely used thermometer, but since all patients are potential Ebola patients, the hospital in Nigeria and several other West African countries had been phasing out their continual usage in the healthcare system.
“It’s a no-brainer to predict that infrared thermometers are now in high demand in African markets following the emergence of Ebola virus disease. First of all, those that are still selling the former glass type are lamenting now because everyone now wants the infrared digital type,” Bisi Oni, a medical products marketing rep said.
According to him, there is a very high demand for infrared thermometers from various public and private establishments.
“The thermometer market alone is now a multimillion dollar business in Nigeria alone not to talk of the rest of Africa. In Nigeria, public institutions are procuring the thermometers, so are private establishments. From banks, even churches, hospitals and schools are now ordering for the thermometers in large numbers. If you attend major events, don’t be surprised when you see someone pointing the thermometer at you,” said Oni.
The level of awareness about the disease in Nigeria may be responsible for consciousness and preparedness from all angles – it is also one of the lessons that other countries dealing with the disease could learn from Nigeria. But it also created a larger market for those that sell the thermometers.
“I personally got to sell several thousands of the thermometers to corporate organizations especially those with branches across the federation. One thing that is working in our favor is that even though the disease was only diagnosed in Lagos and Port Harcourt, the level of consciousness was raised across the nation which meant we have a larger market available to us,” he said.
He added that there would be an even larger market if Nigeria begins local manufacturing of the thermometers.
“All of them – or let me comfortably say most of the thermometers in the market are from China. The magnitude of the disease lowers the inquisition into the cost price and market price differences, which mean the manufacturers could charge any amount for them — especially when they all agree to make as much profit as they can from the outbreak,” he said.
“African governments are spending and buying everything that is presented as useful in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of Ebola. Everyone wants a share of the money being thrown around which is why I wasn’t surprised to hear some people are pitching cannabis as a protective against Ebola.”
Small and big stores are also enjoying great sales on sanitary products, especially hand sanitizers. At the outset of the outbreak, health professionals advised individuals to get hand sanitizers. A few days later, many Nigerians complained they couldn’t get the product at any of the stores that once had them.
“Before everyone was talking about Ebola, no one was buying the hand sanitizers. Some of them would just expire while on the shelf. But just overnight, the demand for it changed. We increased the price by more than 75 percent, yet people were buying,” a Lagos-based supermarket attendant said. “We even had corporate bodies calling to request for large amounts and the hand sanitizers disappeared from the shelves. We even had to call the manufacturers and our suppliers who were also under immense pressure from other outlets.”
Ahubarezeama concluded that Ebola is not all about a very bad disease; he also described it as business opportunity.
“There are people making money from Ebola in different sectors. But this is not entirely restricted to Ebola, it is also happening with other diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. As long as there is a major disease that is taking lives, there will always be business opportunities for some people to make money. It sounds [bad] somehow, but that’s how it is.”