In Ten Days, Nigeria Loses N24 bn To Twitter Ban

Following the ban of twitter by the Federal Government, Nigeria has lost N24.72bn ($60.14m), within a space of just 10 days.

The revelation is contained in a release by NetBlocks.

Nigeria loses N102.9m ($250,600) every hour to the ban.

Barely two weeks ago, Osun Defender had reported the Federal Government suspension of the social media platform in Nigeria.

According to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, ‘the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence’ as the reason behind the ban.

“Nigeria has about 33 million active social media users, with about 26 per cent on Twitter”, ‘Statistia Nigeria’ reported.

The Director General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture, Ayoola Olukanni, explained that “Communication is a significant part of sales and marketing in this digital age. Consequently, the Twitter ban will likely impact negatively and disrupt businesses especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises who rely on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram including Twitter to conduct business.

“It will therefore most likely negatively impact the IT sector of the economy which is already facing several other challenges.

“While it may be considered that there are alternative social media platforms, the abrupt nature of the suspension would mean a loss of existing contacts and a cost of migration.

“We must of course also not and cannot, discountenance the national security dimension of the misuse of social media and micro-blogging platforms to inspire violence outside its use to conduct Business.”

In the meantime, Twitter users across the country have been lamenting. A twitter user, Mercy Omohoro, narrated her ordeal, said, “Honestly, it has always been twitter. I started from twitter. I only started spreading to Instagram a few months back and I’ve not been able to get used to the platform that well”.