Twitter Bosses Explain Reasons for Choosing Ghana Ahead of Nigeria for African Office

- Twitter shocked many Nigerians as the social messaging app said it will open its first African office in Ghana

- The social media giant snubbed Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, where it has the largest users on the continent

- There are many reasons that made Twitter choose Ghana ahead of Nigeria despite meeting President Muhammadu Buhari

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Twitter has announced its plan to establish its first African office in Ghana, snubbing Nigeria, despite being the most active Twitter users behind Egypt in Africa. The move came as a surprise for many.

In 2019, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey visited some Nigerian tech founders and President Muhammadu Buhari, resulting in high expectations that the social media giant could situate its African office in Nigeria when it also considers a number of Twitter users within the country.

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In Africa, only Egypt leads Nigeria on the most active Twitter users by country according to a 2016 research by Portland Communications, while Ghana is the fifth based on geolocated tweets.

Egypt and Nigeria account for 500 million and 360 million geolocated tweets out of Africa compared to Ghana's 70 million geolocated tweets which is below that of South Africa and Kenya.

So why did Twitter choose Ghana ahead of Nigeria?

1. Nigeria is not politically stable and struggles with insecurity.
2. It is trailed by bottleneck reforms and policy uncertainty in the tech sector which has led to the closure of bike-hailing companies and cryptocurrency exchanges within the country.
3. The country has a track record of clamping down on freedom of speech, leading to the social media bill being pushed by President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

Kayvon Beykpour, the product lead for Twitter and Co-Founder, Periscope, as well as Uche Adegbite‎, Director, Product Management, Global Markets, also gave their insight:

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1. Twitter described Ghana as a champion of democracy.
2. The tech giant also stated that the country being the preferred location for the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area was the icing on the cake.
3. Ghana is a supporter of free speech
4. Ghana has online freedom.
5. Open Internet, of which Twitter is also an advocate.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that Appzone, a financial technology, raised $10 million to expand its footprint in new markets. The company had previously received $15 million for its operation.

The CardinalStone Capital Advisers had taken part in the first funding round and also took part in the recent capital infusion which also involved V8 Capital, Lateral Investment Partners, Constant Capital, and Itanna Capital Ventures.

The new capital was raised in a series of funding. The startup currently operates in Nigeria Ghana, Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Senegal and Guinea.

Source: Legit.ng