12th April, 2021
By Abankula
Twitter announced today it has established an African foothold in Ghana and is now hiring staff for its office.
Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey broke the news with one liner: “Twitter is now present on the continent”, with the flag of Ghana as illustration about its base.
Nigeria was loudly snubbed by the giant social media platform.
In a further statement today, Twitter said it is looking for specialists to join several teams including product, design, engineering, marketing and communications.
“Full details on current job openings can be found on the Twitter Careers site”, the company said, in the statement by Kayvon Beykpour and Uche Adegbite.
Beykpour is the Product Lead, Twitter and Co-Founder, Periscope, while Uche is the Director, Product Management, Global Markets.
President Nana Akufo-Addo was excited by the news as he wrote on Twitter:
“The choice of Ghana as HQ for Twitter’s Africa operations is EXCELLENT news. Gov’t and Ghanaians welcome very much this announcement and the confidence reposed in our country.
“As I indicated to @Jack in our virtual meeting of 7th April 2021, this is the start of a beautiful partnership between Twitter and Ghana, which is critical for the dev’t of Ghana’s hugely important tech sector
“These are exciting times to be in, and to do business in Ghana”, Akufo-Addo said.
Read the full Twitter statement:
Twitter’s mission is to serve the public conversation, and it’s essential, for the world and for Twitter, to increase the number of people who feel comfortable participating in it. To do this, we need to make it easier for everyone to join in and provide more relevant experiences for people across the world.
Today, in line with our growth strategy, we’re excited to announce that we are now actively building a team in Ghana. To truly serve the public conversation, we must be more immersed in the rich and vibrant communities that drive the conversations taking place every day across the African continent. We are looking for specialists to join several teams including product, design, engineering, marketing and communications. Full details on current job openings can be found on the Twitter Careers site. Aligned with our existing WFH policies, we look forward to welcoming and onboarding our new team members remotely so that we can make an immediate impact while we explore the opportunity to open an office in Ghana in the future.
Why Ghana?
As a champion for democracy, Ghana is a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet, of which Twitter is also an advocate. Furthermore, Ghana’s recent appointment to host The Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area aligns with our overarching goal to establish a presence in the region that will support our efforts to improve and tailor our service across Africa.
Whenever we enter new markets, we work hard to ensure that we are not just investing in the talent that we hire, but also investing in local communities and the social fabric that supports them. We have already laid foundations through partnerships with Amref Health Africa in Kenya, Afrochella in Ghana, Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI) in Nigeria, and The HackLab Foundation in Ghana. As part of our long-term commitment to the region, we’ll continue to explore compelling ways we can use the positive power of Twitter to strengthen our communities through employee engagement, platform activation, and corporate giving.
We still have much to learn but we are excited to listen, learn, and engage. Public conversation is essential to solving problems, building shared ideas, and pushing us all forward together. We can’t wait for the next step on that journey.