Lai Mohammed says Twitter ban will be lifted soon

Nigeria's federal government will soon lift a ban it imposed on the operations of social media company, Twitter, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has just announced.

The President Muhammadu Buhari administration suspended the operations of Twitter in Nigeria on June 4, leaving most young Nigerians to resort to Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to access the microblogging site.

Briefing State House correspondents after the virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the First Lady’s Conference room, Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mohammed said Twitter and the federal government have made progress on the negotiation table.

“The end for amicable resolution is very much in sight. We have agreed on some areas. Hopefully, in the next few days or weeks we will conclude.

"We appreciate the patience of Nigerians. I want to assure you that we have made very tremendous progress. We have met with Twitter both physically and in writing. We are actually almost there.

"The engagement has been extremely positive without any acrimony. We have made it clear what we want from Twitter," Mohammed said.

He added that Twitter has "shown a lot of flexibility, the conversation has not been acrimonious."

Twitter has also agreed to set up an office in Nigeria, Mohammed said, adding that the company however maintained that the earliest it can achieve that is in 2022.

Nigeria has lost billions of Naira since the ban.