As part of the show of commitment, and in a way of expanding its investment in Africa, social media giant – Facebook Inc. – has said it will open its second office in Africa.
The office, according to Chimdindu Aneke, who is Facebook’s program manager, will be in Lagos, and is expected to become operational in the second half of 2021.
Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Head of New Product Experimentation, said the opening of the Lagos office presents new and exciting opportunities in digital innovations to be developed from the continent, and taken to the rest of the world.
The new office which will be in the commercial centre of Nigeria, will be used for the purpose of engineering, sales, policy, partnership, and communication.
“All across Africa, we are seeing immense talent in the tech ecosystem and I am proud that with the upcoming opening of our new office, we will build 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.” – Ime Archibong.
Facebook’s Director of Public Policy, Africa, Kojo Boakye, said Facebook’s new Africa office presents an important milestone which further reinforces Facebook’s ongoing commitment to the region.
“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.”
Facebook opened its first Africa office in 2015, and has since made a number of investments across Africa, to expand the tech ecosystem.
In 2018, Facebook went into partnership with CcHub to launch NG_Hub. The partnership is intended to lead tech talent development in Nigeria.
The social media giant also has a $1 billion project in the works, as well as a partnership with MTN and Orange to build the world’s largest sub-sea cable, so as to speed up internet connectivity across Africa.