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.”
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.
View more photos from his visit here
View more photos from his visit here
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