{"id":1454,"date":"2021-06-08T10:31:39","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T10:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2022-01-02T10:39:39","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T10:39:39","slug":"twitter-ban-will-harm-nigeria-as-a-technology-investment-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/1454\/twitter-ban-will-harm-nigeria-as-a-technology-investment-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter ban will harm Nigeria as a technology investment destination"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Tolu Olarewaju<\/strong>*<\/p>\n

In recent years Lagos, Nigeria\u2019s biggest city, has become Africa\u2019s\u00a0most attractive<\/a>\u00a0tech hub for\u00a0investors<\/a>. But that could be imperilled by the government\u2019s decision to\u00a0suspend Twitter\u2019s operations<\/a>\u00a0in the country.<\/p>\n

Although no direct connection has been drawn, the ban came two days after Twitter\u00a0took down<\/a>\u00a0a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari. Twitter claimed the message had been deleted because it violated its rules against \u201cabusive behaviour\u201d. The ban could be in retaliation.<\/p>\n

A new chill entered into the relationship between Nigeria and Twitter in mid-April when the social media platform\u00a0chose Ghana<\/a>\u00a0for its regional headquarters. Nigeria\u2019s market is bigger than Ghana\u2019s, with more Twitter users than Ghana has\u00a0citizens<\/a>.\u00a0Ghana<\/a>\u00a0won because its government has created an attractive environment for\u00a0external investors<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0improving<\/a>\u00a0the country\u2019s electricity output, and investing in good roads and a paperless port project.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Nigeria\u2019s fledgling technology sector had been seen as an\u00a0attractive proposition<\/a>\u00a0to investors because of the pool of talent in Nigeria, increasing\u00a0smartphone penetration<\/a>\u00a0and access to the Nigerian market of\u00a0200 million people<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian\u00a0technology scene<\/a>, concentrated in\u00a0Lagos<\/a>, is a recent and\u00a0rare success<\/a>\u00a0story. One particular area of growth has been the financial technology (fintech) sector.<\/p>\n

But the ban makes it difficult for the government to argue that it is friendly to\u00a0technology enterprises<\/a>. The Nigerian government has often\u00a0called on foreign investors<\/a>\u00a0to invest in Nigerian technology start-ups and support Nigeria\u2019s technology ecosystem.<\/p>\n

For example, in 2016 Buhari hosted Mark Zuckerberg on the Facebook CEO\u2019s first visit to sub-Saharan Africa. Facebook is set to\u00a0open an office<\/a>\u00a0in the second quarter of 2021 in Lagos.<\/p>\n

The indefinite Twitter suspension could prove to be a setback by spooking investors.<\/p>\n

Tech start ups<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s financial technology (fintech) start-ups have begun to engage innovatively with segments of the population that can\u2019t access traditional financial services. About 56% of Nigerian adults are\u00a0unbanked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Homegrown businesses\u00a0Flutterwave<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Paystack<\/a>\u00a0are two examples of\u00a0fintech start-ups<\/a>\u00a0that have been able to secure investments recently.<\/p>\n

Flutterwave provides payment solutions for businesses. It recently attracted investment of US$170 million from a consortium of\u00a0foreign investors<\/a>. Paystack, which also provides payment solutions and customer analytics, attracted US$200 million from US payments giant\u00a0Stripe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two start-ups recently earned the\u00a0coveted unicorn<\/a>\u00a0status. This is a reference to privately held technology start-up businesses valued at more than US$1 billion. This means that Flutterwave and Paystack are already, on paper,\u00a0more valuable<\/a>\u00a0than most of Nigeria\u2019s biggest banks.<\/p>\n

The suspension could make it harder for technology entrepreneurs like this to get investment. Technology entrepreneurs will now need to convince investors about regulatory risks. This will be especially so if their business models require an active social media presence.<\/p>\n

The Twitter ban will also reduce the exposure of Nigerian technology entrepreneurs to the world, reducing their ability to attract funding and grow their markets.<\/p>\n

Finally, it sits at odds with the government\u2019s goal of economic growth and openness by sending a signal that Nigeria is not entirely open for technology business.<\/p>\n

Why social media matters to business<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many small and medium enterprises in Nigeria use social media,\u00a0including Twitter<\/a>, for marketing, pitching, attracting investors and reaching customers.<\/p>\n

An example of these are start-up technology firms like\u00a0Cowrywise<\/a>, a savings and investment company, and\u00a0Piggyvest<\/a>, an online savings platform.<\/p>\n

Not too long ago, Cowrywise\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0it was raising US$3 million in\u00a0investment<\/a>\u00a0funding. One of the participating investors, Sahil Lavingia, tweeted that his investment conversation started via a Twitter direct message or \u201cDM\u201d. Lavingia is the founder of\u00a0Gumroad<\/a>, a San Francisco based online platform that facilitates the sale of products by creators directly to consumers.<\/p>\n

Lavingia invested in the Nigerian company and posted on Twitter: \u201cExcited to invest in another African startup! The power of Twitter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nigerian companies have also used social media to raise awareness of their brands. Some do this through \u201cinfluencers<\/a>\u201d like the lifestyle and entertainment bloggers\u00a0Linda Ikeji<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Uche Eze Pedro<\/a>, as well as the music blogger Demola Ogundele of\u00a0Notjustok<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reconcile and de-escalate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s information minister, Lai Mohammed, criticised Twitter for \u201cdouble standards<\/a>\u201d because the social media company did not,\u00a0until recently<\/a>, delete or flag inflammatory tweets by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the\u00a0separatist<\/a>\u00a0group leader.<\/p>\n

But, in my view, the Twitter ban seems to support the notion that the Nigerian government does not like to be held accountable for its actions and scrutinised when it falls short. It reeks of censorship and is reminiscent of non-democratic institutions. The president did not have to use the platform to air his views and should have been advised that using Twitter means being subject to its rules.<\/p>\n

If the spat between the Nigerian government and Twitter is not de-escalated, the country\u2019s thriving technology sector will suffer. This at a time when Nigeria needs to tap into technology to address its\u00a0socio-economic challenges<\/a>. Chief among these is the urgent need to reduce its dependency on oil and improve its infrastructure. Technology can help with that.<\/p>\n

\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640\u0640<\/span><\/p>\n

* Lecturer in Economics, Staffordshire University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent years Lagos, Nigeria\u2019s biggest city, has become Africa\u2019s most attractive tech hub for investors. But that could be imperilled by the government\u2019s decision to suspend Twitter\u2019s operations in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"The Conversation","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,27],"tags":[138,137],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-west-africa","tag-technology-investment","tag-twitter-ban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}