Facebook announced on Wednesday, it plans to open an office in Lagos, Nigeria which will be operational from H2, 2021. The only African office so far was established in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2015 but Facebook says it is establishing the second office as part of its ongoing investments in Africa.
In 2016, CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Nigeria and interacted with local tech communities. The visit must have left a lasting impression on the owner now that Facebook is planning to establish an office in Lagos four years on. Facebook says the Lagos office will be home to its several teams across its business including Sales, Partnerships, Policy and Communications. The office will also be the first in Africa with a team of Facebook engineers.
“The opening of our new office in Lagos, Nigeria presents new and exciting opportunities in digital innovations to be developed from the continent and taken to the rest of the world,” explains Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Head of New Product Experimentation. “All across Africa we’re seeing immense talent in the tech ecosystem, and I’m proud that with the upcoming opening of our new office, we’ll be building 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.”
Facebook has been investing in Africa and Nigeria in particular. In 2018, the company opened NG_Hub, its first community hub space in Africa in collaboration with Co-Creation Hub. The company also opened its Small Business Group (SBG) operations centre in Lagos in 2019 in partnership with Teleperformance.
