#HOWMUCH?

Now Musk is arguably one of the most successful and famous entrepreneurs to have emerged from Africa in living memory. He left the continent with a suitcase and is now one of the richest people on the planet and is celebrated by entrepreneurs all over Africa.

Whichever way you look at it Musk is now the owner of Twitter and, as an entrepreneur, has to make sure it makes money. After all, he has sunk $44 billion into buying Twitter and needs now to ensure it is profitable.

So Musk is cutting back the 7,500 staff at Twitter with the claim that the social media platform faces a huge drop in revenue that could be losing as much as $4 million a day.

Musk is trying to bring in money on the revenue front by introducing the $7.99 charge for the blue tick verification.

That is what may stick in the throats of the millions of small entrepreneurs up and down the continent – many of whom have been Tweeting praise about Musk for years.

The $7.99-a-month price tag may seem paltry to billionaires, but to many African entrepreneurs that is serious money. Especially, when you consider that many of these entrepreneurs would have to exchange local currency, at a high rate, to buy dollars.

On top of this, many of the smaller entrepreneurs may have ambition – but no cards with which to pay.

You don’t have to be a fortune teller to work out that other charges for Twitter may follow sooner rather than later.

All this means that the very entrepreneurs – who rely upon Twitter and social media for business networking –  could be priced out of the market.

That would be a short-sighted way to raise money at the expense of the aspirations of African entrepreneurs.

Photo: https://www.foxbusiness.com/