As part of its
continued commitment and ongoing investment in Africa, Facebook at the weekend
announced it will be opening an office in Lagos, Nigeria – its second office on
the African continent. Aimed at supporting the entire Sub-Saharan Africa
region, the office is expected to become operational in H2 2021 and will be the
first on the continent to house a team of expert engineers building for the
future of Africa and beyond.
Facebook’s office will be home to various teams servicing the continent from
across the business, including Sales, Partnerships, Policy, Communications as
well as Engineers.
Commenting, Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Head of New Product Experimentation said:“The
opening of our new office in Lagos, Nigeria presents new and exciting
opportunities in digital innovations to be developed from the continent and
taken to the rest of the world. All across Africa we’re seeing immense talent
in the tech ecosystem, and I’m proud that with the upcoming opening of our new
office, we’ll be building products for the future of Africa, and the rest of
the world, with Africans at the helm. We look forward to contributing further
to the African tech ecosystem.”
The investment of the new Facebook office follows the 2018 opening of NG_Hub,
its first flagship community hub space in Africa in partnership with CcHub, and
the 2019 opening of a Small Business Group (SBG) Operations Centre in Lagos, in
partnership with Teleperformance. Providing outsourced support to all
English-speaking advertisers across Sub-Saharan Africa, the SBG office supports
Small Medium Businesses (SMBs) through its Advocacy, Community & Education
(ACE) programme, as well as its Marketing Expert sales programmes – all aimed
at enabling SMBs to accelerate the growth and development of their businesses.
“Our new office
in Nigeria presents an important milestone which further reinforces our ongoing
commitment to the region”, commented Kojo Boakye, Facebook’s Director of Public
Policy, Africa. “Our mission in Africa is no different to elsewhere in the
world – to build community and bring the world closer together, and I’m excited
about the possibilities that this will create, not just in Nigeria, but across
Africa.”
Since the opening of its first office in 2015, Facebook has made a number of
investments across the continent, aimed at supporting and growing the tech
ecosystem, expanding and providing reliable connectivity infrastructures and
helping businesses to grow locally, regionally and globally. This includes the
recent rollout of its SMB Grants programme in Nigeria and South Africa, aimed
at supporting over 900 businesses by providing a combination of cash and ad
credits to help small businesses as they rebuild from COVID. The development of
2Africa, the world’s largest subsea cable project that will deliver much needed
internet capacity and reliability across large parts of Africa, as well as its
ongoing training programmes across the continent which support various
communities including students, SMBs, digital creatives, female entrepreneurs,
start-up’s and developers.
Nunu Ntshingila,
Regional Director, Facebook Africa, said: “We’re delighted to be announcing our
new office in Nigeria. Five years on from opening our first office on the
continent in Johannesburg, South Africa, we’re continuing to invest in and
support local talent, as well as the various communities that use our
platforms. The office in Lagos will also be key in helping to expand how we
service our clients across the continent.”
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