West African countries eager to adopt how Nigeria dealt with Twitter — Pantami 

By Ogaga Ariemu

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami has said West African countries are eager to adopt how Nigeria dealt with the tech giant, Twitter.

The Minister also disclosed that West African countries are looking for possibilities of adopting digital economy policies.

Pantami made this known while speaking to journalists at the closing ceremony of the Digital Economy Regional Conference, DERC held in Abuja on Wednesday.

“Looking at the Unity of West African countries, 15 of them attended this conference. Many Ministers were in attendance, this indicates that unity brings about collaboration.

“All over the world, no country will develop its digital economy sector without collaboration, it cannot achieve digital inclusion in silos.

“The communique the conference produced, many issues that will bring about win-win situations in the sector have been outlined for implementation by West Africa countries.

“First, they are willing to adopt most of our digital economy policies, which we’ve been implementing in Nigeria — mainly looking at how we have diversified the country’s economy through ICT and digital services.

“Secondly, the way and manner the Nigerian government dealt with Twitter, other countries are willing to learn how they can get a copy of some of our agreement with Twitter so that they can adopt it.

“Also looking at the possibility of adopting some of the conditions across the West Africa Countries,” he stated.

The Nigerian government suspended Twitter operation in Nigeria on June 5 2021, which lasted till January 13 2022, after reaching an agreement.