Magically, the minister of labour and productivity, Chris Ngige, has concluded the Nigeria exodus debate on TV: “Who said we don’t have enough doctors? We have more than enough. You can quote me. There is nothing wrong in them travelling out”. The minister does not care if they keep leaving because Nigeria has enough. Though it is hard to argue with a man who has access to better data, he has a point – we always have surplus, in Nigeria, even though we live in scarcity! Go Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Mr Ngige said he is not worried about doctors leaving the country because ”there are enough doctors”.

When asked by the presenter to comment on the brain drain in the country and if the deliberate recruitment of Nigerian doctors by foreign embassies is detrimental to the nation’s health sector, the minister said, “No, I am not worried about doctors leaving the country, we have a surplus.

“If you have a surplus, you export. It happened some years ago here. I was taught chemistry and biology by Indian teachers in my secondary school days. There is a surplus in their country, and we also have a surplus in the medical profession in our country. I can tell you this. In my area, we have excess,” he said.

According to him, ”I know a couple of them who practise abroad but set up medical centres back home. They have a CAT scan, MRI scan which even the government cannot maintain. So, I don’t see any loss.

“Who said we don’t have enough doctors? We have more than enough. You can quote me. There is nothing wrong in them travelling out. When they go abroad, they earn money and send them back home here. Yes, we have foreign exchange earnings from them and not just oil.”

Mr Ngige said brain drain would only be inimical ”when, for instance, neurosurgeons travel and we don’t have neurosurgeons here”.

If you are a student writing any exam, do not make that case: Nigeria does not have excess doctors. We produce less than 1,600 yearly with about 1,000 leaving. By 2025, when most elderly doctors retire, the equilibrium will crash. The only professional people we have excess in Nigeria are Politicians.

Nigerians’ Big Exodus To Canada

By Nnamdi Odumody

Live streaming, a popular medium for consumption of entertainment content in the United States and other developed markets, is redesigning commerce in China.

Live-streaming refers to online streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real time. It is often referred to simply as streaming, however this abbreviated term is ambiguous due to the fact that “streaming” may refer to any media delivered and played back simultaneously without requiring a completely downloaded file. Non-live media such as video-on-demand and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but not live-streamed.

In 2018, Taobao generated more than 100 billion RMB ($15.1 billion) in gross merchandise volume through live streaming sessions in 2018.

According to a report by Deloitte, China has the largest live streaming market in the world which reached $4.4 billion in 2018 on 32 percent year on year growth. Chinese consumers see live streaming as their go to option when discovering new products to buy.

Taobao is a content creation community with over 4,000 live stream hosts that generate 150,000 hours of content on a daily basis with over 80 percent of them females.

According to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Centre, there were 425 million live stream users back in July 2018.

Live streaming services surveyed for the latest Statistical Report on Internet Development in China included sport broadcasting, host live shows, live game streaming, and live concert streaming.

According to Inke, the platform alone has more than 200 million registered users, including more than 26 million monthly active users.

Live streaming on e-commerce platforms in China enables fans of brands shop immediately for the items streamed on the same app. Taobao’s customers use live stream to shop for over 600,000 products every day.

Key opinion leaders use live streaming to engage the Chinese audience. Fans ask questions about products, post comments to the hosts and even send virtual gifts as a form of appreciation while watching the live stream.

Live streaming is bridging the online and offline experience in China with a shift in experiences from broadcast rooms to offline retail stores, local farms and apparel factories on Taobao.

Nigerian retail, fast moving consumer goods and financial services brands should explore how to utilize live streaming for customer engagement, to generate more leads which will increase their profits. Of course, it may still be expensive to do that in Nigeria with our cost of bandwidth. Nonetheless, the cost trajectory looks promising over time.

I had noted that by 2022, Africa would enter the era of affordable and immersive connectivity. With the approval by FCC for SpaceX to launch global broadband service, you would experience total crash in the price of broadband services by 2022 in Nigeria.

Few days ago, I noted that hotels in South Africa are asking government to regulate Airbnb. They do think that allowing the hospitality platform to operate without regulations will eat into their business opportunities. The government has since responded. The summary is this – no one wants to annoy voters for the sake of big corporations, and everything in the amendment is “will” or “can” since it seems no practical methodology exists yet. Ban Airbnb in South Africa, illegal ones will emerge since people have tasted and liked it. Largely, there will be some cosmetic rule changes for tourism sector but those will not slow down Airbnb which operates are near-zero marginal cost!

Through this bill, ‘short-term home rentals’ will now be legislated under the Tourism Act in South Africa.

Under the amendments, the minister of tourism will have the power to specify certain ‘thresholds’ when it comes to Airbnb in South Africa.

These thresholds can include limits on the number of nights that a guest can stay or even how much income an Airbnb host earns.

According to the department, this would ensure that “everyone gets their fair share” and that both private users of Airbnb and hotel groups get to enjoy a shared economy.

The department also plans to give more oversight to local government when it comes to zoning and where an Airbnb may be located.

Airbnb responded thus: “We are having productive discussions with the government, based on our experience working with more than 500 governments around the world,…hosts to share their homes, follow the rules and pay their fair share of tax”. Yes, Airbnb hosts are not afraid of paying taxes – bring them on. Of course, with largely no overheads, hotels even on same tax rate, with Airbnb hosts, will continue to struggle as Airbnb hosts will enjoy better margins.

For Smarter Regulation of Airbnb in Africa