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 TemiGiwa, 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.
SeniSulyman,
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.
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