When the federal government of Nigeria banned Twitter on June 4, it gave no thought to the importance of the platform. All that mattered was the bruised ego of President Muhammadu Buhari, who felt insulted because his tweet—in which he had threatened to “treat those misbehaving today in a language they understand”—was deleted for violating Twitter’s policy and his account temporarily suspended.
But millions of Nigerians, especially young people, rely on social media platforms. They’re trying to use tech and social media to solve local problems in Nigeria, from entertainment to health to fin-tech. In 2019, there were about 24.59 million social network users in Nigeria, a figure projected to grow to 44.63 million users in 2025 as more and more users are able to access the internet and others begin to understand the role that social media plays in business, job creation, advocacy, and politics.
