The Twitter ban in Nigeria is still in effect according to the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Ikechukwu Adinde.
Adinde said that there had been no communications from the Ministry of Information to lift the ban.
The NCC had sent a memo to Mobile Network Operators and Internet Service Providers to block access to Twitter for the ban imposed by the Federal Government to take effect.
The Federal Government indefinitely banned Twitter on June 4, days after the microblogging site deleted a tweet by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, which violated its rules.
The Federal Government had since told a Federal High Court in Lagos that it had not stopped Nigerians from using Twitter.
The President set up a committee consisting of five ministers to negotiate with Twitter with the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, as the head of the committee.
Recently Mohammed announced that the committee negotiating with Twitter would soon arrive at an agreement.
One of the conditions set by the government for lifting the ban is that Twitter should register with the Companies and Allied Matters Act, and establish a physical presence in Nigeria.
Also, the FG hopes to get the company to commit itself to work with the Federal Inland Revenue Service. Mohammed had said, “If you make money from Nigeria, you pay taxes according to Nigerian laws.
”Twitter makes money from advertising, data licensing and others.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the company generated $556.15m from revenues outside the United States.
In Q1 2021, it generated $479.79m. In Q2 2021, it generated $537.35m outside the US.
According to Statistics, Nigeria has about 33 million active social media users, with about 26 per cent on Twitter.
Since the ban began, Nigeria has lost N220.36bn. This figure was calculated based on the NetBlocks Cost of the Shutdown Tool.
According to the tool, it costs Nigeria’s economy N103.17m ($250,600) every hour to ban Twitter.
It has been 2,136 hours since the FG banned Twitter.
