In keeping with the pledges of the founder, Mark Zuckerberg who visited the country last year and the recent visit by Facebook’s Chief Product’s officer, Chris Cox’s visit to Nigeria.
Cox had met with Nigerian Entrepreneurs and content creators at the Social Media Week event earlier on Monday where the decision was reached to train startups of how to grow businesses.
The ‘Boost Your Business’ training, a series of free training sessions for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs in Nigeria will be facilitated by trainers led by She Leads Africa in key cities which include Lagos, Kaduna, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan.
By design, the weeklong training scheme will help Nigerian SME operators understand how to leverage digital platforms for growth from next week.
Nigeria was the first stop on a week-long trip to West Africa where Chris will also visit Ghana and Senegal to learn about the challenges and opportunities people in the region face so that Facebook can better serve the region’s content creators, entrepreneurs and developers.
During his talk at Social Media Week — the region’s premier new media and social media conference — Cox highlighted Nigeria’s status as a hub for innovation and creativity because of its fast-growing mobile technology sector and its vibrant film and music industries.
He talked about how creators like Femi Kuti were using Facebook to bring fans into their lives and extend their presence beyond the stage and recorded media.
Building on Mark Zuckerberg’s 2016 visit, Cox is the most senior Facebook executive to visit Nigeria since Mark Zuckerberg visited Lagos in September 2016. He arrived in Nigeria 26 February and attended New Afrika Shrine to see Femi Kuti, one of his musical heroes. Femi’s hour long set was streamed via Facebook live to the world and Chris was honoured to be invited to play keyboards for one song.
