Nigerians have been agog since yesterday over the surprise visit of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder Facebook, one of the biggest social media in the world.
Zuckerberg’s visit, his very first in Africa, has some economic importance to Nigeria especially at a time when recession bites even harder and businesses are crumbling.
TheSheet.ng reported that Zuckerberg arrived Lagos State yesterday ahead of the ‘Facebook for developers’ workshop’ for Nigerian engineers, product managers and partners which will take place today, August 31, 2016.
One of the economic importance of this event to Nigeria is that it will help engineers build better applications and monetise them more effectively.
Besides, Facebook would at the event, unveil a ten-year-old roadmap that can also help improve the economy of Nigeria.
The company’s Director of Global product Partnerships, Nigeria, Ime Archibong would lead speakers to achieve this cause.
Facebook is an online social networking service based in Menlo Park, California, United States, which was founded in February 4, 2004 by Zuckerberg and his fellow Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
Facebook began selling stock to the public three months later, reaching an original peak market capitalization of $104 billion.
it became the fastest company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to reach a market cap of $250 billion in July 13, 2015.
Facebook had hit over 1.65 billion monthly active users out of which 7.1 million people are daily users from Nigeria as at March 2016 which makes it the country with the highest users in Africa.
According to a source in the know, Zuckerberg’s visit was kept secret for security reasons.
The source said: “It was a top secret and nobody was meant to know before his arrival. It was actually for security reasons but now that he is here, he would be able to interact with tech professionals and other Nigerians today in a press conference at Eko Hotel and Suites tomorrow (today).”
The 32-year-old tech-entrepreneur had on arrival, met with developers and partners, and also explored Nollywood.
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 where young developers learn how to code and develop their solutions while looking for mentors and angel investors.
He 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 mobilizing blood donations, taking inventory of all blood available in the country, and delivering blood in the right condition to where it is needed.
Zuckerberg expressed excitement over the level of technology development at the CcHub and said he would learn as much as he can before he leaves.
He said: “This is my first trip to sub-Saharan Africa. I’ll be meeting with developers and entrepreneurs, and learning about the startup 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.”
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