Twitter layoff staff, affecting the recently formed Africa team.
Bernard Kafui Sokpe
Bernard Kafui Sokpe, a former Senior Partner Manager at Twitter Africa, announced his departure from the company on Friday.
Sokpe, via his Twitter handle, said, “It’s been a year working at a place I never imagined I’ll ever get to work. I’m glad that I could represent Africa & I didn’t let us down. My best career experience by far & it was beautiful whilst it lasted. Much love to all the amazing tweeps that made it worth it. #OneTeam.”
His tweet comes just days after he shared photos of Twitter’s newly opened headquarters in Accra, Ghana, and revealed that it would be the first time the team would be working together in the office.
Only three days after returning to work at Twitter’s Africa Office in Ghana, many of them have been let go as part of Elon Musk’s mass layoffs.
The majority of its African employees worked from their respective homes and countries for more than a year.
They all returned to the Ghana Office for the first time earlier this week. Only to be victims of the Twitter mass layoffs affecting the newly formed African team of the social media platform, which is based in Ghana.
Jack Dorsey
Meanwhile, Twitter’s former co-founder, Jack Dorsey, has apologized and accepted responsibility for the mass layoffs.
He tweeted, “Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.
“I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment…or ever…and I understand.”
Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment is. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, claimed on Friday that the company was losing four million dollars ($4m) per day and thus had no choice but to downsize.
He tweeted, “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately, there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.”
The reactions
As a result, there have been various replies from Twitter users.
David Hundeyin tweeted “Funny story, I almost took a job at Twitter last year. Money looked good but I had location/tax jurisdiction issues so I chose to pursue West Africa Weekly instead. Was disappointed at the time, but today Kim Jong-Tweet is about to clear out that entire West Africa office. Wild”
Former Ghanaian tweeted “So there’s no twitter Africa team again everyone has been layed off. I feel bad for mistermeister and his team”
Other News
In other news, meistermind retweeted @spectatorindex
“BREAKING: Bloomberg reports that Twitter has fired 90% of its employees in India”
Twitter, led by Elon Musk, has laid off more than 90% of its employees in India, significantly depleting its engineering and product teams.
According to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the situation, the company had just over 200 employees in India before the layoffs, leaving it with only about a dozen employees.
Elon Musk Twitter layoffs are felt not only in Africa, but also in India.
How many more layoffs are we expecting?
Read more….
