Fresh bank documents have revealed that Adamu Garba, a social critic and businessman, received funding from the Nigerian Government to build his app, Crowwe, in an apparent plot to rival Facebook and Twitter, People’s Gazette reveals.
According to the evidence, Garba received hundreds of millions of Naira via the Central Bank of Nigeria to execute the project.
The CBN on May 21, 2019, transferred N136.8 million to Mr Garba’s company, IPI Solutions, documents reveal, marking one of several transfers that sources said the Buhari regime advanced to Mr Garba in the course of building the Crowwe app.
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The Buhari administration is known for its desperate efforts to clamp down on social media with the latest being the suspension of Twitter’s activities in the country.
Garba was widely condemned after he praised the suspension, claiming that Twitter was ‘anti-Nigerian’ and actively supporting efforts to destabilise the country. He railed against the social media platform, a move that seriously backfired.
“It was while the government was trying to find ways to control the media space that Adamu Garba’s company was picked as one of the promising businesses that could proffer solutions,” an administration official said.
“The seriousness of controlling social media cannot be overplayed.”
However, Garba’s app, Crowwe failed to appeal to the Nigerian populace. Many complained of the numerous glitches the app had and it was recently kicked out of the Google play store after garnering thousands of negative reviews.
When confronted with the findings, Garba admitted that he received funds from the Nigerian government adding that “we do projects and receive payments from the central bank”.
The presidency did not return a request seeking comments about its dealings with Mr Garba, The Gazette said.
Mr Garba confirmed that he received funds from the government, but said it was one of several payments the government paid for a series of “intervention” projects his company executed for the government.
“We do projects and receive payments from the Central Bank,” Mr Garba told Gazette. “I think it is a project we did for the EFCC.” He was silent on whether or not the projects were through competitive bidding in line with extant public procurement regulations.
Crowwe was “100 per cent developed by us internally,’’ Mr Adamu added. “We are even looking for investors locally and internationally. We are looking for investors to further scale up and improve Crowwe capacity.”
Mr Garba earned instant name recognition in 2018 after showing interest in running for president against Mr Buhari. He summarily abandoned his campaign and became a recognisable voice in support of the president.