Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the LCCI, Dr. Chinyere Almona
Twitter ban cost Nigeria N10.72trn – LCCI
Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has put the economic cost of the seven-month long Twitter ban in Nigeria at N10.72 trillion.
Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the LCCI, Dr. Chinyere Almona, who disclosed this in a statement, Friday in Lagos, however, urged the Federal Government to create an enabling regulatory environment that supports global technology companies in achieving their potential and are sustainably profitable.
Founded in 1888, LCCI is the foremost and largest Chamber of Commerce in the West African sub-region.
Addressing the lifting of the Twitter ban and several other matters in her statement, Almona said:
“The Federal Government’s press statement conveying the lifting of the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria is well received and commendable.
“In business terms, the cost of the seven-month shutdown of Twitter operations in Nigeria is estimated to be N10.72 trillion (26.1billion dollars) according to Netblock’s Cost of Shutdown Tool.”
Almona also stated that digital platforms have become a viable tool for business operations and governance in engaging with a diversified audience and boosting digital transactions.
“Currently, the Information and Communications Technology sector is one of the growth drivers in the economy even as we see additional activities of digital platforms adding more potential to the sector.
“We, therefore, urge the government to create an enabling regulatory environment that supports global technology companies in achieving their potential and are sustainably profitable,” she said, adding that improving Nigeria’s digital infrastructure from a policy perspective would boost healthcare delivery, agric-technology, learning, e-governance, and fintech.
The lifting of the suspension was announced January 12, via a statement by the Chairman Technical Committee, Nigeria-Twitter Engagement and Director-General National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
Abdullahi said the Federal Government directed him to inform the public that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the lifting of the ban effective from 12:00 a.m. this morning (Thursday).
He said the approval was given following a memo written to the President by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim. In the Memo, he said the Minister updated and requested the President’s approval for the lifting based on the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement’s recommendation.
Federal Government had announced the suspension of Twitter operations on June 4, 2021, after the social media giant deleted a post by President Buhari for “violation of the company’s abusive behaviour policy.”
By June 5, 2021, the suspension was effected by telecommunications companies who shut down the application across all platforms.
According to the NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool, Nigeria lost N104.02 million ($250,600) every hour to the ban, bringing the daily losses to N2.46 billion.
By the end of Wednesday, January 12, it was 5,328 hours in the 222 days since the social networking site was blocked, and about N546.5 billion was already lost by the economy.
