5 reasons good enough to make Mark Zuckerberg visit Nigeria

folarin okunola

August 31, 2016 10:39 AM

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.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks on stage during the Facebook F8 conference in San Francisco, California April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

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.

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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.

folarin okunola