Written by Ijeoma Ndukwe

He has worked in two of the continent’s most vibrant tech hubs, in Nigeria’s main city Lagos, he co-founded the Co-Creation Hub which then acquired Kenya’s iHub – another leading innovation centre.

He thinks the proactiveness of Ghana’s president clearly played a pivotal role in Twitter’s decision.

“If you look at Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria in terms of political stability and quality of leadership, there’s only one country that stands out.

“If a company is thinking about the potential impact of government policy, I would go with Ghana. Ghana is an access point to Nigeria, so you get the full benefits of access to the Nigerian market without any of the dysfunction that comes with being there.”

And Nigeria’s “dysfunction” became a talking-point after the announcement with start-up founders sharing their experiences.

Nigerian Information Minister Lai Mohammed blamed the media’s negative coverage of Nigeria for Twitter’s snub, saying: “This is what you get when you de-market your own country.”

“Across sectors we’ve seen regulators step in to regulate after technology companies have disrupted the market,” she says.

“While regulation is good, what it sometimes means is that you’re creating barriers to entry by creating high licence fees for example. Regulators need to think about the bigger picture and the long-term impact of these regulations and policies.”

A recent example of regulation stifling entrepreneurship was the 2020 ban of commercial motorcycle taxis from core business and residential areas of Lagos – introduced as a number of internationally funded ride-hailing platforms, including Gokada, ORide and Max.ng, launched to service the huge demand.