The Nigerian Federal Government’s claim that negative media representation is responsible for why Twitter chose Ghana over Nigeria for its African office is untrue in several ways.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Muhammed, speaking on this “snub “, has blamed the media for painting a terrible image of the country. Speaking, he said, “This is what you get when you de-market your own country. Nigerian journalists were…painting Nigeria as a hell where nobody should live.” Lai Mohammed’s claim only represents the blame-shifting and denial associated with the current government.

In fact, the country’s failing investment climate is a great reason why foreign investors opt to grow anywhere but in Africa’s largest nation. In reality, other African nations, including Ghana, have thrived beyond Nigeria, creating a much more suitable business and investment climate that allows businesses to thrive, attracting continental and global businesses. This adequate environment has served as a welcoming environment for businesses who have left Nigeria to thrive outside the suffocating operating environment the country had offered them.

This is not the first time Nigeria has been snubbed as a location for an African headquarter. In 2018, reports had stated that Google planned to open an artificial research centre, the first of its kind in Africa in Ghana. Ghana’s quality of education, its political stability, and its thriving investment are reasons why Ghana was considered first. Between 2006 and 2008, local industries within Nigeria had also relocated, including Michelin and Dunlop, Nigeria’s two tyre manufacturers. Retail chains, Woolworths, Truworths and Mr Price, have also excited Nigeria in the last few years. Businesses are not the only group to leave Nigeria as Nigerians themselves are immigrating as fast as they can out of the nation.

As such, Nigeria’s snub by investors is sad but unexpected; however, the federal government fails to come to terms with this. A survey by the World Bank Enterprise reports that between 2009 and 2014, 322 private firms closed in Nigeria for reasons attributed to corruption and stifling business regulations. MAN also reported that 196 manufacturing companies had shut down in Nigeria between 2015 and 2017 during the President Buhari-led administration.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhHmuphlfNE

This is why Twitter took HQ to Ghana