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Twitter broke Ghana’s labour law and the government did nothing

At the dawn of Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter fired staff in Ghana without severance. Why didn’t the government intervene?

By Kofi Yeboah
Twitter broke Ghana’s labour law and the government did nothing
President Nana Akufo-Addo had publicly welcomed Twitter into the country but said nothing about the company's subsequent exit and its treatment of its African staff. | Robert Okine (Getty Images)
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When Twitter announced it would set up its Africa headquarters in Ghana, there was a lot of excitement in the country’s tech sector.

The move established Ghana as a major competitor in the race, against Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda, to become Africa’s tech and innovation hub, and was accompanied by a big PR push – president Nana Akuffo Addo said it was the “start of a beautiful partnership” that was “critical for the development of Ghana’s hugely important tech sector”.

Two years later, Twitter had fired almost all of its African employees in Ghana. This happened suddenly, as a result of new owner Elon Musk’s global cost-cutting measures.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0