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Last year November, Facebook announced its intention to drive innovation, skills development and economic impact across Nigeria. The company planned to achieve this through various partnerships, training programmes and an innovation hub — NG_HUB — that will serve as a centre for learning and skill development.
Innovative start-ups in Lagos now have a community hub launched by the US giant. The social network is committed to digital training of 50,000 young entrepreneurs, creatives or developers.
Ebele Okobi, Facebook’s Director of Public Policy for Africa said, ”The 50,000 people trained will be people who are hubs and all of our partners are involved and helping us get there. We have already begun to move towards these goals, we have trained 3,000 SMEs and, in terms of monitoring, we will do this directly with our partners to ensure that we are held accountable for our purpose.”
In Nigeria, there are more than 22 million Facebook users and 87% of SMEs are pushed towards digital skills.According to Ife Adebayo, special assistant to the vice president for innovation and entrepreneurship, this Facebook initiative in Nigeria will improve the skills of Nigerians and promote growth and economic development of the country.
”This is actually an investment in Nigeria, an investment in the technology ecosystem, it is also to support companies, developers, designers, entrepreneurs, with training designed for their to acquire the digital skills they need to succeed, “concluded Ms. Ebele Okobi.
The NG_HUB from Facebook which is located in Montgomery Yaba, Lagos will also help other existing technology hubs to function as learning centres for local communities
