By Juliet Umeh

Frontline Nigerian public relation agency, SquirrelPR has urged all Africans to join hands in attacking the menace of disinformation which is ravaging the world, before it does irreparable harm to African nations.

This is as the firm was one those selected to join other stakeholders in discussing the impact of disinformation in Africa at the recent US-West Africa Tech Challenge held in Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire.

The US-West Africa Tech Challenge is aimed at advancing the development of promising technologies that offer innovative solutions to help expose, understand, or counter disinformation, propaganda, and violent extremism in Africa.

Co-founder of SuirrelPR, James Ezechukwu who represented the company at the event, lamented that a recent report revealed that disinformation and misinformation cost the global economy up to $80 billion annually, adding that it is only countries that are proactive in attacking the menace that will not get huge share in this humongous loss.

Ezechukwu said for Africa, there is a respite, as his agency has developed a suite of tools that can help organisations significantly mitigate, if not completely eradicate the impact of disinformation on their operations.

He said: “Squirrel leads the charge for fighting disinformation that could lead to violent extremism on the continent through a suite of solutions aimed at holistically solving the problem of disinformation, especially with the growing disruptive influence of generative artificial intelligence in the spread of disinformation.”

“With a growing media database of no fewer than 1,700 newsrooms and journalists covering both traditional and digital media channels across Africa, Middle East and Europe, SquirrelPR remains at the forefront of fighting disinformation with far greater speed than that with which disinformation spreads”.

He added that the solution which has been selected among the finalists for the challenge, grants organisations speedy and open access to a network of credible newsrooms/journalists across the world to fight disinformation, or any other information that could lead to brand misrepresentation or reputational damage..