WeChat Nigeria Refutes Exit Reports

Inactivity between users and social communications app WeChat in Nigeria has fuelled speculation the company could soon exit the region.

WeChat Nigeria has not been connecting with its users through conventional means on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter for about five months - last posts on Facebook and Twitter were on March 11 and February 28 respectively.

Local media have reported on the likely regional closure of the mobile text and voice messaging communication service, developed by Tencent in China and 34% owned by the most valuable company in Africa, Naspers.

The conclusion is not farfetched considering Naspers' antecedence at growing online business in Africa's biggest economy for the past decade.

E-commerce companies that were started by the media firm but have since shut down operations due to slow growth in Nigeria include Kalahari.com.ng, and online business directory Mocality.com.ng.

Naspers' online job portal Careers24 is still operational as well as its backed Singapore-based bitcoin startup BitX launched in Nigeria last year. Its online marketplace Konga.com has also been doing extremely well.

Classifieds site Dealfish.com.ng changed to OLX.com.ng, Property.com.ng hasn't been fully launched while pricecheck.com.ng has closed office in Nigeria to operate from South Africa.

The same is now being claimed in the case of WeChat as reports say there is no longer any of its local staff on ground in Nigeria.

Idemudia Dima-Okojie, Country Manager denied the claims and said, "Nigeria remains one of our focal growth areas in Africa. We've been in Nigeria for a few years and this year, we've decided we need to streamline our operations on the ground in order to achieve optimum strategic objectives."

The company has partnered with two Nigerian startups to launch on its platform, but still has about 3.4 million users according to SocialBakers.