The recent clampdown on Twitter, a social networking site, by the Nigerian government has continued to spark controversies and ceaseless debates about the legitimacy or otherwise of the directive. Put simply, beyond the legality of the directive, however, lies the economic implications of the ban on Twitter.

Just barely months after the ban on crypto currency trading in the Nigeria banking system comes the ban on Twitter in Nigeria. NOI Polls estimates that 39.6 million Nigerians use Twitter – 20 per cent for business advertisement and 18 per cent for employment seeking.

The question is, are these recent moves by the Nigerian government sending wrong signals to investors, especially investors in the tech space? And by that singular stroke, the action is affecting a sizable number of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector’s contribution to the GDP improved greatly in the last four years. According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released last August, the ICT sector contributed 17.83 per cent to Nigeria’s GDP in the second quarter of 2020, performing much better than the previous quarter and the same quarter in 2019. And this is despite the overall decline in the GDP as a result of diminishing economic activities in 2020 ICT contributions increased greatly.

There is no gainsaying that ICT is the present and the future of global economy. The world is charting towards the involvement of digital economy in almost all the spheres of lives but this has to be done responsibly. 

We are getting to a point where a lot of, if not all, human activities would be done digitally as innovations will disrupt daily lives. Painfully, there is little or nothing anybody can do about that.

There is no doubt that there is already a huge loss of income mostly for young people that do businesses on social media platforms, of which Twitter is key. 

A lot of small businesses take advantages of social media soft-adverts because of the big budget requirements by traditional adverts platforms. Influencers, comedians, content creators and small brands have created niche for themselves with the Twitter unique features like trends, threads and the new Twitter space.

Advertising and digital agencies might cut down on jobs as this seemingly uninformed decision might lead to increase in the unemployment rate in Nigeria. Presently, Nigeria’s unemployment rate stands at 32.5 per cent, the continuation of this ban for the next couple of months could see the unemployment rate jump higher.

As the use for digital applications grow, social media platforms must not evade the responsibility, accountability and larger commitment of prospective users to ensure that the platforms are not misused to spread incorrect facts or incite violence. 

However, the Nigerian government, in a bid to curtail inimical cacophonous noises on social media should involve and engage stakeholders in the tech and advertising space to conduct a thorough research on the pros and cons of the action and analyze the possible outcomes before such decisions are implemented.

Ayodele Olubuse, Digital Lead, Ideas House Marketing Communication