Twitter recently announced its plans to open its headquarters in Ghana, causing an uproar in Nigeria, particularly on various social media platforms.
But this would not be the first time that Ghana has been favoured over Nigeria by her big multinational firms.
In recent years, two big companies have chosen to set up in Ghana instead of in Nigeria which has a huge market size.
Google AI Lab
Despite having a regular office in Lagos Nigeria, Google, one of the world’s leading internet companies, chose Ghana as the location for its very first Artificial Intelligence research laboratory on the African continent.
Google has only 5 of such labs in the world located in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Google HQ and now in Accra.
An associate consultant with Control Risk Africa speaking to CNBC in an interview cited Ghana’s political stability and high educational standards as one of the key reasons for Google’s choice.
He also hinted that Lagos, Nigeria was more prone to civil unrest, hence the decision to set up such a prestigious lab in Accra, Ghana.
Fan Milk
The dairy milk giant has large footprints in Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Togo.
However, it chose Accra for its operational headquarters. The dairy milk company was formerly referred to as the Ghanaian Milk Company, but was later acquired and owned by a joint partnership by Danone, a world food processing company, and Abraaj, a private equity firm.
Danone went on to buy out all the shares, and become the sole owner of the company.
Why Ghana?
Following Twitter’s decision to situate its operational headquarters in Ghana, Nigeria’s internet space was awash with negative sentiments over the news.
The popular narrative leaned on the fact that Nigeria, being a larger contributor to the Twitter community, ought to house Twitter’s African office. The subtle rivalry between the two West African Nations did not help matters, especially when Jack Dorsey put out a message to answer the question on everyone’s lips.
Twitter’s official reason for choosing Ghana
Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, briefly explained the reason why Ghana turned out to be the company’s choice for its African office.
He stated that the country was a firm supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the open internet.
He further explained that Ghana’s recent appointment to host the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area allowed Twitter to “establish a presence in the region.”
