A week after billionaire Elon Musk completed his seven-month-long takeover of Twitter, the company has laid off a significant chunk of its workforce including some of the 20-member team in Ghana.
According to The New York Times, half of Twitter’s 7,500 workforce was let go, and the social media company’s newer Africa team was affected too.
Last year, Twitter opened up its first Africa office in Ghana where a 20-person team was instituted to help the company drive conversations across Africa’s diverse regions. Now, members of the Africa team have been laid off according to sources close to the issue.
Senior partnership officer Bernard Kafui Sokpe, popularly known as Mistameister, tweeted a farewell message on Friday morning.
Although it is still not clear the number of Twitter employees on the continent that were let go, a source said the number could be as high as half of the team.
Employees at Twitter’s Africa office who received the Friday email, which notified employees of the impending layoffs, through their personal emails are still confused about the status of their employment as the emails say they are “suspended”.
“For the avoidance of doubt, this suspension does not mean your employment has been terminated,” a part of the email read.
In a tweet, Elon Musk said every employee affected by the payroll would be offered three months of severance, “…which is 50% more than what is legally required.”
Meanwhile, affected employees across the world are not taking the layoffs lying down. Across the US and Ireland, employees are suing Musk and Twitter for failing to give appropriate notice of termination. Meanwhile, advertisers like Volkswagen are reportedly boycotting Twitter in response to the rapid changes Musk has made…and musk is not masking his displeasure about it.
