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Hello, welcome to my podcast.
My name is klu Aga, and this

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is the way I see it,
of course, my podcast where we're talking

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about money, finance and of course
the economy. So last week I did

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watch a video about a Nigerian consumer
and he was really lamenting about the very

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very high cost of inhalers in Nigeria. You know, he had asthma and

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according to him, the company that
markets the inhalers, the Ventalin brand,

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was leaving Nigeria, so the cost
of the inhalers has gone up significantly.

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He used to pay a thousand five
hundred food in healo. Now he's paid

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about eight thousand, five hundred for
the same inhalo. So in the video,

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he was saying, hey, the
government should do something. He was

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even given specific actions, perhaps bringing
the company back to Nigeria so the cost

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could fall. Very interesting. So
I decided to take a look at this

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whole inhaler price and I see how
we possibly could you know, could address

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the contents by this consumer who was
clearly in need of this drugs a bit

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cheaper, you know. So on
Amazon, I went to Amazon. The

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cost of a vod inhala is called
the branded bental in sixty accutations give what

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takes about twenty four dollars. That's
I looked at it November the sixteenth.

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Let's assume we have a one thousand
narraw to one dollar exchange rate. That

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means this particular inhaler would cost about
twenty five thousand raw. So what if

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it was that I macked that up
by say fifty percent, called my import

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duty transportation needs to cre so that
means it lands in Nigeria is about taty

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seven thousand, five hundred narrow.
So this is clearly unaffordable to mini Nigerias

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because the minimum which in Nigeria,
believe it or not, it's about testy

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five thousand. It's just gone up
by to teny five thousand. Yeah,

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so if you did did this way, not a lot of Nigers can afford

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it. In America, Amazon does
sell this exact same inhaler for just four

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dollars if you've got insurance. If
we make that up, that's about six

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thousand. So when you were getting
there, to waste affordable. But if

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you have insurance. So if this
gentleman that was talking on the video had

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insurance, the nitrate is called the
nhis he would have contributed about five percent,

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his employ will about ten percent of
his basic MOTI salary. Then possibly

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she could then afford this inhaler either
at six thousand or at the teny five

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thousand if he had insurance. The
question arises that what if he doesn't have

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insurance? This then means that the
government would have to step in and for

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that entitlement program for those that cannot
afford this. Remember this is a life

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saving job, right, so it's
like medicaid. The government will have to

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step in and fund this program to
be an entitlement program on a need based

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or should we say income means tested
basis. So it's a choice. The

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government can fund its expenses or it
can fund healthcare. And there are many

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ways the government can fund this,
right, it could take sympathic oil money

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and buy tons of inhalers. It
could give tax bas and grants to GSK

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to come to Nigeria. But I'm
for the view that the government can easily

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fund this by simply cutting down wasteful
expenses. Let's look at the numbers,

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right, if we took the costs, let's just say five billion and just

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big figure out the year five billion, and we committed that to dollars.

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That's about five million dollars if it
went to GSK and we give them a

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five million dollar contract at the minimum, even using that high price on Amazon,

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we're gonna get about one thirty three
thousand, three three units. This

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is taking the price on Amazon without
insurance. We get more nearly or in

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a taxty four thousand units, which
is significant. We can distribute to Nigeria's

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that cannot afford this. So it's
really really that simple for Nigeria, cut

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down expenses and use those savings to
buy life saving drugs like inhalers for your

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citizens. Right. And you can
also do what the guy has said,

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call back GSK to Nigeria, probably
give them a tax break or give them

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a long tax holder and say hey, make this drug it's very very you

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know, essential for Nigerians. We'll
give you charge, you know, taxes.

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Just come in and make them so
our consumers, our citizens can afford

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them. That's really what we need
to do as a government. Right.

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But the bigger message here is simply
this, the government exists for the poor

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and for those that cannot take care
of themselves because they simply can't afford to

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and inhala is imported. Even not
four dollars which is about six thousand if

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you're at the markup, not a
lot of Nigerians can afford it. Thus,

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the government can step in and use
the resources. It's oil revenues which

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is paid to the federation to subsidize
the cost of this life saving drugs.

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And the government can only get this
revenues when it cuts down on its own

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wasteful expenses. So the long and
short of it is this, the government

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cuts down on wasteful expenditures like yachts, like bulletproof SUVs, like perfume,

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and it takes those savings to buy
life saving drugs for its own citizens.

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Believe it or not, there's a
hard choice in Nigeria, right should we

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buy yachts or should we buy inhalers. I know the answer, and I

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know you listen know the answer too. But does the government know the answer

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that we should either buy yachts or
in healers. My view, my prayer

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is that the government does buy not
just in haalers, but build schools and

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build the hospitals for the poor and
the vulnerable that isn't able to have a

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better life because they have a government
that cares and listens to them. I

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always say nature's problem is spending,
not the revenues. All right, folks,

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thanks so much for listening. Again. My name is Calu and thanks

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listening to this podcast the way I
say. It's available anywhere you get your

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podcast where I find the rest downloaded, Share with your friend, and I

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appreciate you for doing that. Ask
you guys next time. Bye,