Twitter CEO Calls Tweet About Africa Tour ‘A Mistake’

Twitter’s 43-year-old CEO, Jack Dorsey, announced that his November tweet to spend as much as six months on the African continent this year was a mistake.”

Explaining the reason behind his new decision, Dorsey said on Twitter’s Investor Relations account;  “I had been working on my plans where I’d work decentralized, as my team and I do when we travel, but in light of COVID-19 and everything else going on I need to reevaluate,”

It is reported that Dorsey's tweet came a few days after reports emerged that activist investor Paul Singer was looking to oust Dorsey from his role as CEO.

According to reports, Singer’s main concerns are Dorsey’s divided attention due to his role as CEO of both Twitter and payments company Square, as well as Twitter’s modest stock growth over the past few years compared to its rivals.

In 2019, Dorsey spent several weeks in October and November on a tour of Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, and announced after his trip that he would “be living here for 3-6 months mid-2020.”

He said  “Africa will define the future,” and during Twitter’s last earnings call with analysts, said he wants the company to have a global workforce.

“Our concentration in San Francisco is not serving us any longer and we will strive to be a far more distributed workforce, which we will use to improve our execution,” Dorsey said last month.

On Thursday, the Silicon Valley executive said Twitter will “continue to pursue opportunities in Africa” regardless of whether he is living there, calling the continent a “huge opportunity.”