Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg visits Nigeria.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is visiting Nigeria this week on his
first trip to Africa, using his time in the country to visit the Yaba
technology hub in Lagos, meet with developers and partners, and explore
Nollywood.
Zuckerberg is in Nigeria to listen and learn and take ideas back to
California on how Facebook can better support tech development and
entrepreneurship across Africa.
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.
CcHub opened in 2011 and at the time didn’t even have an office. Five
years later they fill three floors and the roof of a building. At CcHub
people can learn how to code, developers can get help launching their
first products, and find mentors and funding.
At CcHub Zuckerberg 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.
After visiting CcHub Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, 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.”
Meeting developers at Andela
Mark then went to Andela, an engineering organization that is building the next generation of technical leaders in Africa.
Andela is a business that recruits the most talented technologists in
Africa and shapes them into world-class developers through a four-year
technical leadership program. In the two years since it was founded,
Andela has accepted just over 200 engineers from a pool of more than
40,000 applicants. Andela developers spend six months mastering a
technical stack and contributing to open source projects before being
placed with global technology companies as full-time, distributed
teammates, working out of Andela headquarters in Lagos and Nairobi.
Earlier this year, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invested in Andela
after being impressed by the company’s innovative model of learning and
its drive to connect the global technology ecosystem with the most
talented developers in Africa.
Seni Sulyman, Director, Andela Lagos, said: “We are excited and
honored to welcome Mark Zuckerberg to Lagos. His visit reinforces not
only his support of Andela’s mission, but his belief that indeed the
next generation of great technology leaders will come out of Lagos,
Nigeria and cities across Africa. Andela has created a platform for
passionate, driven software developers and engineers to break into the
global tech ecosystem, but the barriers to entry are still very high.
Mark’s visit demonstrates to all Nigerian developers and entrepreneurs
that they’ve caught the attention of the tech world, and they are
capable of succeeding on a truly global level.”
At the end of the day Zuckerberg stopped by an Express WiFi stand in
Lagos owned by Rosemary Njoku. Facebook’s Express WiFi lets
entrepreneurs like Rosemary set up a hot spot to help their community
access apps and services built by local developers.
Next stop: Lagos! 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.
Our first stop is 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 here!
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