Nigerian Government opens official account on Indian social media platform ‘Koo’

Less than a week after the Nigerian government suspended Twitter operations in Nigeria, the federal government has opened an official account on Koo, an Indian microblogging platform.

The Koo account, with the handle, “@nigeriagov” and username, “Government of Nigeria”, had over 10,000 followers as at the time of filing this report.

The koo app appears to have drawn inspiration from Twitter but its navigation and usability are designed with keeping the indian vernacular speaking audience in centre.

Aprameya Radhakrishna, Koo founder and CEO, officially confirmed on Saturday that the platform is now available in Nigeria.

Radhakrishna said his team was working on adding Nigeria’s local languages for Koo users in the country.

“Koo is now available in Nigeria. We are thinking of enabling the local language there as well. He further added that they are considering introducing a local Nigerian language into the Koo app,” Radhakrishna said.

“Nigeria is similar to India in terms of language diversity. It has hundreds of regional languages. Koo has a global outlook and will enable micro-blogging in countries that need it the most. We have built a scalable platform, and while we are still enhancing the product, it’s already available for use in multiple countries today.” he said.

Recall that Nigeria’s minister of information, Lai Mohammed had initiated the Twitter ban, saying that the microblogging site was being used to undermine “Nigeria’s corporate existence”.