Half of the Nigerian Internet community can
barely contain themselves and people keep
asking me, " Did you know that Mark
Zuckerberg is in Nigeria? " Duh.
I may be the in-house dork here at the Pulse
office but I'm not as oblivious as I sometimes
look. So yes, I do know that one of the most
recognizable, talked about person in
technology in the entire world is a few
kilometers away across an ocean, distanced by
West Africa's longest bridge.
So why all these melodramatic questions and
descriptive effort? Well, something happened
today - something, I dare say, is way out of
the ordinary.
Founder and CEO of Facebook (and also the
7th richest man on the planet) came to
Nigeria and visited the social incubation king,
CcHub.
The visit was unannounced, and apart from
some people seemingly connected directly to
his visit, nobody knew he was coming.
When I heard about it, I immediately started
to draft an article, making frantic calls in the
process, trying to find out why the hell Mark
Zuckerberg is in Nigeria and I'm just hearing
about it.
I didn't find much, and there isn't much to be
found, but based on recent events and
happenings in the tech space lately, I have
some suspicions.
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Here are 5 reasons why Mark Zuckerberg may
be in Nigeria:
ExpressWiFI - Facebook just launched a new
affordable WiFi platform, in partnership with
local Nigerian broadband provider Coollink,
that is aimed at getting more people in
Nigeria connected to the Internet. ExpressWiFi
was previously launched in India before being
launched in Nigeria today.
Andela: In June, Zuckerberg, through the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative, invested $24 million in
Andela, the global talent operator to enable it
train more engineers in Africa. That
investment is the first ever made by the
Initiative.
Jobberman: In May, Zuckerberg had good
things to say about Nigerian developers, the
Nigerian tech space, and Jobberman (founded
by Olalekan Elude, Ayodeji Akinwunmi, and
Opeyemi Awoyemi), as part of his
announcement of the launch of Free Basics in
Nigeria.
Facebook Developer Workshop: Facebook is
holding an invite-only developer workshop in
Lagos focusing on Bots on Messenger,
Account Kit, and React Native. It will be
holding at the Landmark Event Centre and I
won't be surprised if Zuck is interested in
that.
Government Meetings: This is Zuckerberg's
first visit to Africa and it will only make sense
for him to utilize the opportunity to meet
with government officials to discuss policies
that could advance the level of technology in
Nigeria as well as those that could favor
Facebook.
There may have been more going on in Zuck's
head before he decided to make this trip but
based on all that is public knowledge, the
reasons mentioned above are as good as any
to visit Africa's most populous country.
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