Controversy trails Twitter’s choice of Ghana over Nigeria for its African headquarters
In the quest to increase its participation in every part of the world, the popular microblogging social media platform, Twitter, announced plans to establish its Africa’s Headquarters in Ghana.
This was confirmed by Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, where he tweeted the social media presence in Ghana, thanking the Ghanaian President and the Ghanaian for their support.
Jack tweeted: “Twitter is now present on the continent.
Thank you Ghana and @NAkufoAddo. #TwitterGhana.
The establishment of Africa HQ was as a result of the organization’s growth strategy which is aimed at increasing ‘public conversation’ and ‘vibrant community’ in the Africa continent according to Twitter’s official blog.
The statement read “Today, in line with our growth strategy, we’re excited to announce that we are now actively building a team in Ghana. To truly serve the public conversation, we must be more immersed in the rich and vibrant communities that drive the conversations taking place every day across the African continent.”
Twitter chose Ghana over Nigeria for its Africa Headquarters due to the Black Gold support for free speech which is in line with the organization’s commitment in championing democracy,online freedom and open internet for all.
It can be recalled that Twitter CEO, Jack, was a prominent supporter of the #EndSARS protest, an agitation calling for an end to police brutality in Nigeria. This brought the Nigeria Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, to call for a ban of Twitter and other social media platforms supporting the protest in the country.
Furthermore, the social media official statement acknowledged that another reason for its Ghana location was as a result of the recent siting of The Secretariat of the Africa Free Trade Zone in Ghana aligns with their objective of strong partnership with local businesses in the region.
According to the statement, “Ghana’s recent appointment to host The Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area aligns with our overarching goal to establish a presence in the region that will support our efforts to improve and tailor our service across Africa.”
Meanwhile, this news of Twitter choosing Ghana over Nigeria for its HQ have garnered mixed reactions from Nigerians with many showing utmost displeasure and dissatisfaction, accusing Nigeria government’s unstable economic policy, insecurity and dictatorial rules for turning off foreign direct investment in the country.
Dipo Awojide, a career coach and social influencer, tweeted ‘Ghana has made a lot of progress in the last decade and there is so much Nigeria can learn from them. First of, peace and stability helps. We need to significantly deal with insecurity in Nigeria. Then, the constant policy summersault and irrational regulations must end.
Formal minister for education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, aired her opinion in her tweet, stating that “a troubling policy, regulatory and physical environment is a deal breaker. Businesses, especially Global ones at that- are not long-suffering citizens of your country. They have plenty choices of address. Twitter locating to Accra is a statement to our @NigeriaGov.
However, theSpecial Assistant to the President on Digital and New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi, countered the critists with his tweet, stating that Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa are attracting the tech giant investment and investors all over the world, casting down Nigeria over other African growth is unintelligent.
In his thread, Tolu stated ‘A time must come when we all grow up and stop these childish pissing and dissing games. Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, SA are ALL getting a lot of recognition and investment from tech companies and investors. Let’s stop behaving like crabs, as if it’s a Zero Sum game. It’s stupid!
And the desire to cast every good thing that happens to another country in negative light for Nigeria (even while similar good stuff is happening here) is not just a fascinating cognitive bias but also a debilitating sickness that modern medicine needs to get to the bottom of.”
In response to this news, the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, has commended Jack for his choice of choosing Ghana, stating that it was a welcoming announcement that reposted confidence in the country.
He vowed to support Twitter with this beautiful partnership which is critical to the development of Ghana tech industry.
