Nigeria loses N150 billion since Buhari's Twitter ban

President Muhammadu Buhari's decision to suspend the operations of Twitter in Africa's most populous nation and largest economy, has cost the federation more than N150.46bn ($366.88m) and left the coffers bleeding.

Buhari banned Twitter in June, with Minister of Information Lai Mohammed saying the microblogging platform "was undermining Nigeria's corporate existence."

The Twitter ban was effected after the social media company took down one of the president's tweets for violating its rules.

Some young Nigerians have been using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to circumvent the ban, with Telcos turning off Twitter since the ban took effect.

Punch reports that the N150.46bn figure was arrived at through the NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool.

According to the tool, the ban costs Nigeria N102.77m ($250,600) every hour.

It has been 1,464 hours (61 days) since the ban.

The NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool estimates the economic impact of an internet disruption, mobile data blackout or app restriction in a nation using indicators from the World Bank, International Telecommunication Union, Eurostat and U.S. Census.

The federal government is yet to communicate the outcome of its negotiations with Twitter.