Twitter employees in Africa have been warned of potential layoffs after their new CEO, Elon Musk, announced plans to cut jobs at the microblogging platform in a bid to cut costs.
In Ghana, reports have it that the content moderation unit employees are already among those affected as internal sources anticipate more layoffs. The Ghana office was opened in April 2021 to serve as the headquarters of the company in Africa.
Many sources have also speculated that the ongoing layoffs at the company might affect Twitter’s plans to open an office in Nigeria despite the microblogging platform reaching an agreement with the Federal Government of Nigeria last year.
In September, a company spokesperson told BusinessDay that there were no plans by the company for an office in Nigeria.
Twitter has laid off some of its recruiting teams two months after implementing a hiring freeze amid a takeover bid from Elon Musk.
About a third of the talent acquisition team was affected, according to Thursday reports from various media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch. A representative for Twitter confirmed the layoffs to Insider.
Fewer than 100 people were affected by the layoffs, The Journal reported, citing Twitter.
Changpeng Zhao, the chief executive and founder of Binance, who backed the decision to lay off some employees said: “a slimmer workforce would make more sense” at the social media platform.
Zhao, through Binance, invested $500m (£441m) in Twitter as part of Musk’s $44bn takeover, which was completed last week and has been followed by a stream of changes and mooted overhauls of the company ever since.