Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has told a conference in California that he will reconsider plans to spend part of the year in Africa following the coronavirus outbreak.
Dorsey had revealed back in November that he would look to spend up to six months in Africa over 2020 to support technology innovations there.
However, the state of California, where Twitter is headquartered, declared a health emergency on Thursday following a coronavirus-related death, taking the total death toll in the US up to 11.
Following the news, Dorsey addressed the Morgan Stanley conference in California, saying that he would reconsider his mission to Africa.
His comments from the conference were tweeted by the official Twitter Investor Relations account.
Dorsey said: “When I tweeted about my intention to spend a few months in Africa this year, I made a mistake and should have provided more context about why.
“Africa will be one of the most populated continents in the next 20-30 years. The tech innovation is incredible with a large portion of the population still coming onto the internet.
“It is a huge opportunity, especially for young people, to join Twitter, and for us to learn how to best serve them.
“I had been working on my plans where I’d work decentralised, as my team and I do when we travel, but in light of COVID-19 and everything else going on I need to re-evaluate.
“Either way we’ll continue to pursue opportunities in Africa.”
Dorsey had not confirmed which countries he had intended to visit, but he did travel to Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa during a trip to Africa in 2019.
As of Friday morning, 28 coronavirus cases had been confirmed in Africa, namely in Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt.
