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.