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| Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (middle) out jogging in Lagos. Image source: Tayo Oviosu on Twitter |
A surprise visit to
Nigeria by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been making a big impact on
social media, with his name trending on Twitter across the country.
BBC
Africa Live report continues:
For
the first stop on his two-day tour, he visited a Lagos-based
technology hub.
Facebook Founder, Zuckerberg
Makes 1st Historic Visit To Nigeria
In
what will be a historic move, Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is in
Nigeria on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa, using his time in the country
to visit the Yaba technology hub in Lagos, meet with developers and partners
and explore Nollywood.
Zuckerberg
says he will also listen, learn and take ideas back to California on how
Facebook can better support tech development and entrepreneurship across
Africa.
One
of his first stops on the trip was to visit a ‘Summer of Code Camp’ at the
Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) in Yaba, known as the Silicon Valley of Nigeria.
At
CcHub Zuckerberg met with developers like Temi Giwa, who runs a platform called
Life Bank that makes blood available when and where it is needed in Nigeria.
Life Bank saves lives by mobilising blood donations, taking inventory of all
blood available in Nigeria, and delivering blood in the right condition to
where it is needed.
After
visiting CcHub, Mark Zuckerberg said: “This is my first trip to sub-Saharan
Africa. I’ll be meeting with developers and entrepreneurs, and learning about
the start-up ecosystem in Nigeria. The energy here is amazing and I’m excited
to learn as much as I can.
“The
first place I got to visit was the Co-creation Hub Nigeria (CcHUB) in Yaba. I
got to talk to kids at a summer coding camp and entrepreneurs who come to CcHub
to build and launch their apps. I’m looking forward to meeting more
people in Nigeria”.
Meeting
developers at Andela,Mark then went to Andela, an engineering organisation that
is building the next generation of technical leaders in Africa.
Andela
is a business that recruits the most talented technologists in Africa and
shapes them into world-class developers through a four-year technical
leadership program.
In
the two years since it was founded, Andela has accepted just over 200 engineers
from a pool of more than 40,000 applicants.
Andela
developers spend six months mastering a technical stack and contributing to
open source projects before being placed with global technology companies as
full-time, distributed teammates, working out of Andela headquarters in Lagos
and Nairobi.
Earlier
this year, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invested in Andela after being
impressed by the company’s innovative model of learning and its drive to
connect the global technology ecosystem with the most talented developers in
Africa.
The
Director of Andela Lagos, Seni Sulyman, said: “We are excited and honoured to
welcome Mark Zuckerberg to Lagos. His visit reinforces not only his support of
Andela’s mission, but his belief that indeed the next generation of great
technology leaders will come out of Lagos, Nigeria and cities across Africa.
“Andela
has created a platform for passionate, driven software developers and engineers
to break into the global tech ecosystem, but the barriers to entry are still
very high. Mark’s visit demonstrates to all Nigerian developers and
entrepreneurs that they’ve caught the attention of the tech world, and they are
capable of succeeding on a truly global level”.
At
the end of the day Zuckerberg stopped by an Express WiFi stand in Lagos owned
by Rosemary Njoku. Facebook’s Express WiFi lets entrepreneurs like Rosemary set
up a hot spot to help their community access apps and services built by local
developers.
On
plans to expound Express WiFi he said: “This week, we’re launching a satellite
into space to enable more entrepreneurs across Africa to sell Express Wi-Fi and
more people to access reliable internet. That means more connectivity and more
opportunity for entrepreneurs like Rosemary everywhere”.
Zuckerberg’s
presence has become the talk of the day in Nigeria’s commercial city, with lots
of ‘welcome to Nigeria’ messages on his Facebook page.
In response to some of the messages, an excited Mark said: “Thanks for such a warm welcome”!
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