The United States-based social media
company said the centre would host an “incubator programme” to help
develop technology start-ups, while it would also train 50,000 Nigerians
in digital skills.
Africa’s rapid population growth,
falling data costs and heavy adoption of mobile phones rather than PCs
is attracting technology companies looking to attract more users.
Facebook did not provide details of the
period over which its planned training would take place in Nigeria,
which is Africa’s most populous country with 180 million inhabitants,
according to Reuters.“We understand the important role
Facebook plays here in Nigeria with developers and start-ups and are
interested in helping these communities,” Emeka Afigbo, its regional
head of platform partnership said in a statement on Wednesday.
Facebook said the training, aimed at
software developers, entrepreneurs and students, would be offered in
cities, including Abuja, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Kaduna.
Last year, Facebook founder, Mark
Zuckerberg, visited technology companies in Lagos and his charitable
foundation provided $24m to Andela, which trains developers.
Google’s chief executive in a July visit
to Lagos said the company aimed to train 10 million people across the
continent in online skills over the next five years. He also said it
hoped to train 100,000 software developers in Nigeria, Kenya and South
Africa.
Although Africa may not offer as much
opportunity to add consumers as China or India, because large wealth
gaps mean that many people in places like Nigeria have little disposable
income, Facebook said more than 22 million people already use its
social media website every month in Nigeria.
Widespread poverty means mobile adoption
tends to favour basic phone models. That, combined with poor
telecommunications infrastructure, can mean slow Internet speeds and
less Internet surfing.
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