The seven-month ban on Twitter in Nigeria had cost the country an estimated N10.72 trillion, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has revealed.
This was made public by the Director-General, LCCI, Dr Chineyere Almona, in a statement on Friday in Lagos, according to NAN.
The LCCI also urged the FG to create an enabling regulatory environment that supports global technology companies in achieving their potential and are sustainably profitable.
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.”
Speaking further, Almona stated that digital platforms have become a viable tool for business operations and governance in engaging with a diversified audience and boosting digital transactions.
She said that, 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 concluded that improving Nigeria’s digital infrastructure from a policy perspective would boost healthcare delivery, agric-technology, learning, e-governance, and fintech.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari, sometime this week, announced a lift on the ban on Twitter, seven months after the operations of the microblogging platform was blocked in Nigeria.
