The micro-blogging site Twitter has agreed to establish an office in Nigeria, thus reopening the door to the country’s massive social media market. It appears that the government is taking steps in the right direction.
A couple of months back, the federal government placed an indefinite ban on Twitter, restricting it from operating in Nigeria after the platform deleted tweets made by the President Muhammadu Buhari warning the native people of Biafra that they will be treated in the language they understand.
The government had claimed that the deletion of the President’s tweets was based on a myriad of problems with the micro-blogging platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news circulate, causing chaos in the real world. Not considering the advantages of the platform in the country’s economic growth (learn more).
The ripple effect of the ban has had an enormous impact on the economic status of the country. For example, only three days after the ban, the Alliance for Affordable Internet (AAI) put Nigeria’s economic loss at $1.2 billion, and the e-commerce market lost an estimated $12 billion.
Other Small Business enterprises who use the platform to promote their products and services also lamented the ban’s effect on their revenue generation.
Well, it appears the federal government has taken a turn in the right direction as it plans to uplift the ban following the agreement of the micro-blogging site to open an office in the region.
Like making the right decision on the Twitter ban, the Nigeria power sector can act likewise in promoting policies and regulations that would improve electricity access, thus fostering economic growth in the country.