EFFECT OF TWITTER BAN ON TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF MTN, GLO AND AIRTEL)

EFFECT OF TWITTER BAN ON TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF MTN, GLO AND AIRTEL)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The information and communication technology sector includes the telecommunications (telecom) market. The market mostly consists of businesses that run and grant access to infrastructure for the transmission of voice, data, text, and video (Businesswire, 2016). Information is transmitted by a variety of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic channels in telecommunication (ITU 2015). It began as a result of humans’ need for communication.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that 93% of the world’s population lives within reach of a 3G (or higher) network and that 97% of people live within reach of a mobile cellular signal.

Almost 95% of the population in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe is serviced by a 3G or higher mobile broadband network. The percentage is 91% in the Arab States, 88% in the Commonwealth of Independent States, and 79% in Africa. In 61 of the 85 nations that provided data on mobile phone ownership, more men than women own smartphones (ITU, 2019).

However, there has been a notable improvement in the number of overall active subscriptions since GSM was introduced in Nigeria. The Nigerian Communication Commission (2020) reported that telecoms data for the fourth quarter of 2019 showed that 184,699,409 customers were active on voice, up from 179,176,930 in the third quarter and 172,824,239 in the fourth quarter in 2018.

This was a 6.87% annual growth and a 3.08% quarterly rise in voice subscriptions. Corresponding to this, there were 126,078,999 active subscribers overall, up from 123,163,027 in Q3 2019 and 112,065,740 in Q4 2018. This reflected a 12.50% year-over-year increase in internet subscriptions as well as a quarterly growth of 2.37%.

Nevertheless, when the Federal Government officially banned it from Twitter, this significant sector of Nigeria experienced uncertainty. Users submit and engage with messages known as “tweets” on the American microblogging and social networking site Twitter. Unregistered users can only view tweets whereas registered users can post, like, and retweet them. Twitter can be accessed by users via its website or through mobile device applications. It is sufficient to mention that this social network can be evaluated using mobile data offered by telecommunications firms, therefore there is no question that the prohibition will have an impact on the sector’s profitability in Nigeria. This study’s goal is to determine how the Twitter ban has affected Nigerian telecommunications firms. It is based on this assumption.

1.2  STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The Nigerian government officially banned Twitter from operating in Nigeria on June 5, 2021, after the social media platform deleted tweets from President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria alerting the Igbo-majority south eastern population of Nigeria to the possibility of a recurrence of the 1967 Biafran Civil War (). (CNN 2021). However, it was ultimately based on “a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences,” according to the Nigerian government, who claimed that the removal of the President’s tweets was a factor in their decision. Despite the fact that Amnesty International, the British, Canadian, and Swedish embassies in Nigeria, as well as local groups like the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), all denounced the ban, its implications are likely to have a materially negative impact on the profitability of Nigerian telecommunications companies. More than 120 million Nigerians, or 20% of the population, have access to the internet through mobile data usage, and of those, approximately 40 million have Twitter accounts, according to Social-Media-Poll-Report (2020).

Consequently, a ban on Twitter in Nigeria always means that telecommunications businesses will suffer greatly, not just in terms of profit but also in terms of consumer engagement, which is likely to result in a decline in data consumption and therefore a difficult time for the business. In light of the foregoing, this study will look at how Twitter’s prohibition has affected telecommuting businesses in Nigeria.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This study’s primary goal is to investigate how Twitter’s ban has affected Nigerian telecommunications providers MTN and Airtel. In particular, the investigation will
Find out how the Twitter ban has affected Nigeria’s telecommunications sector.
Examine how much Twitter users in Nigeria utilized of TELECOM products, such as data, prior to the ban.
Check to see if the current Twitter ban will also have an impact on the income and profitability of the Nigerian telecommunications businesses.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study will be guided by the following research question.

1. What kind of impact will Twitter’s ban have on Nigeria’s telecommunications sector?
2. What percentage of Twitter users in Nigeria consumed TELECOM products like data before the ban?
3. Will the current Twitter ban have an impact on the revenue and profitability of the telecom sector in Nigeria?
4. Do you believe that the Twitter ban has had a substantial detrimental impact on Nigeria’s telecommunications industries?

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

t is crucial to note that the conclusions and theoretical aspects of this work will be relevant to the major players in the TELCOM sector of Nigeria and even the Nigerian government because this study illustrates the nature of the twitter ban effect on the telecommunication industries as well as the significant roles played by this sector under study. More specifically, the study will be very helpful to students, researchers, and other people who might be interested in gathering or doing any research relevant to the subject being studied.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study borders on the effect of twitter on telecommunication companies in Nigeria. The study is thus limited to MTN and Airtel telecommunication centres in Lagos State.

1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The limitations of this study includes:

Finance: Due to the economic difficulty that the people, including the researcher, was experiencing, the prospect of a greater sample size, which would have enabled the study to reach a larger region, has become impossible; thus, this work is limited to only Nigeria based MTN.

Time: It was not surprising that the researcher was limited by time frame as it posed a direct challenge to the effective coverage intended in the course of this report. It is the intention of the researcher to interview all the employees of the selected TELECOM company but because of numerous activities of the researcher which borders on both academics, work schedules and other social activities it became relatively impossible to explain the intention.

Attitude of respondents: The majority of workers fail to collect the questionnaires, and some who do collect pay urgent attention required in filling and returning it, and others did not return theirs at all. Others were less accommodating and may have provided untrustworthy information because they were afraid of being exposed, despite the researcher’s promise that all information would be treated with the utmost secrecy and only for education purpose.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Telecommunication: This is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems.

Telecommunication Industry: The telecommunications industries within the sector of information and communication technology is made up of all telecommunications/telephone companies and internet service providers and plays the crucial role in the evolution of mobile communications and the information society.

Twitter: Twitter is an American micro-blogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”. Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them.

Twitter Ban: this is the authoritative pause in the operation of twitter as mandated by the Federal government of Nigeria on June 5th 2021 until the owners of the social network meet the newly established requirement given to them by the government of Nigeria.

REFERENCE

CNN (2021) Nigeria bans Twitter after company deletes President Buhari’s tweet”. . Retrieved 5 June 2021.

Ohuocha, Chijioke (5 June 2021). “Nigerian telecoms firms suspend access to Twitter”. Reuters. Retrieved 7 June2021.

Washington Post. (2021) “Nigeria suspends Twitter after the social media platform freezes president’s account”.  ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 5 June 2021.