Many Nigerian-owned businesses and business executives are counting their losses with their inability to access Twitter within the country since the ban took effect.
This is because over the years, the micro-blogging platform has provided visibility for brands and offers access to relevant information, which is a key component of professional, academic and business growth.
Twitter has always been used by Nigerian businesses to provide customer support services to Nigeria’s upward mobile and youthful population and also gain new clients.
The social media platform has been used to promote activism and create campaigns for brands and new products.
Many unemployed Nigerian youth earn their living on Twitter as influencers, freelancers, marketers and social media managers.
The Nigerian government banned the use of Twitter indefinitely on Friday evening. This was announced by the Spokesperson to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Twitter.
This was shortly after the tech company deleted a tweet and video from President Muhammadu Buhari in which he threatened to deal with secessionist group in South East Nigeria “in the language they understand,” making a reference to the brutal civil war which broke out in Nigeria more than 50 years ago.
The social media giant said the tweet violated its rules.
However, Mohammed accused Twitter of double standards, saying it ignored violent messages that were previously shared by the separatist leader on its platform.
“The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very, very suspect,” Mohammed told reporters after the US company deleted the president’s tweet.
The ban led to a last-minute scramble to download and archive relevant information by Tweeps on the platform and also install Virtual Private Networks (VPN) in order to still access the platform after the ban.
By the early hours of Saturday, tweets refused to load and Nigerian users without VPN were unable to use their handle.
Nigerian telecommunication companies confirmed that they had restricted Nigerian’s access to Twitter after they received a directive from the industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
World leaders and government bodies globally have expressed disappointment over the move, reminding the Nigerian government that rights of Nigerians to information and expression apply online and offline.
With the market share of Nigerians on Twitter declining from 32.16 percent in April to 25.64 per cent in May, according to data from Stat Counter, more Twitter market share is bound to be lost with the recent ban.
Here are the highlights of the economic impact of the Twitter ban to Nigeria’s economy.
Over N4 Billion Economic Loss In Two Days
Many activists argued that the present government administration is trying to avoid transparency, accountability and scrutiny of its policies by the citizens.
According to them, this move has put Nigeria’s democracy in jeopardy and will affect the economic growth of Nigeria.
Going by the estimates of NetBlocks, a platform that tracks internet governance, Nigerian may have lost N4billion to the shutdown of Twitter in two days.
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The platform says the country’s economy would be drawn back by N2,177,089,051 in just one day.
NetBlocks aggregates cost of shutdown tools and estimates the economic impacts of an Internet disruption, mobile data blackouts or app restrictions using data from the World Bank, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Eurostat and US census.
Loss Of Jobs
As mentioned earlier, influencers, bloggers, digital marketers and writers, among others, will lose their source of livelihood which they have built around Twitter to this ban.
Even if they are able to stay on the platform after installing VPN, their clients are most likely to have been affected by the recent ban.
Revenue Losses To Telcos
There will likely be a slowdown in data consumption or data service contribution to the revenue of telecommunication by active Twitter users.
Contribution Of ICT To Economy Will Decline
The Nigerian government has been boasting of the impact of the Information and Communications technology to economic growth, even in the midst of recession last year.
This sector is made up of the telecommunications and Information Services, publishing, motion picture, sound recording, and music production, and broadcasting service providers.
“The growing contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP is a direct result of the focused and committed effort of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari,” the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, had said last year.
The ICT sector contributed 14.07 percent to nation’s Gross Domestic Product in Q1 2020, 17.83 percent in Q2 2020.
The ICT sector growth rate dropped, contributing 14.91 per cent to GDP in Q1 2021 compared with 15.06 per cent recorded in Q4 2020.
Innovation Support Network (ISN), a community of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship support Hubs, in statement pointed out that studies have shown a relationship between democracy, economic growth and the adoption of technology as a democratic polity would create a free economic state which would thrive on competition thereby leading to continuous innovation.
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According to the network, it is critical that the government creates an enabling environment for our innovations and businesses to thrive.
Investors’ Apathy
One of the key factors influencing business investment decisions in Nigeria is changing policy and the Twitter ban may trigger the exit of business investment and influence their future decisions.
The Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, warned that the federal government’s decision to ban Twitter operations in the country will affect investor’s confidence.
Makinde in a statement on Saturday said, “Nigerian youths and digital communications organisations earn a living from being able to use the platform to post communications on behalf of their clients.
“Others who may not have physical stores also rely on Twitter to give visibility to their products and services.
“Furthermore, I believe the Federal Government should be actively interested in how certain policies and action will affect investor confidence. I, therefore, use this medium to appeal to the Federal Government to reverse this suspension for the greater good of Nigerians.”
