Facebook to open its first African community hub space in Lagos next year

Facebook has announced that it will partner with C0-Creation Hub (CC Hub) to launch its first African community hub, NG_Hub, next year in Lagos, Nigeria.

In a statement made on 22 November 2017, Facebook stated that the hub will be a “multi-faceted creative space” where developers, startups and the wider ecosystem can collaborate, learn and exchange ideas. The hub will also host its own incubator programme in addition to training programmes and guest speakers.

The announcement by Facebook follows Google’s launch earlier this month of applications for its Launchpad Africa accelerator.

Read more: Google opens applications for first cohort of Launchpad Africa accelerator

Commenting on the announcement, Facebook’s head of platform partnerships for Middle East and Africa, Emeka Afigbo acknowledged that Nigeria is producing startups that have potential and pointed out that Facebook is committed to help them “build for the next billion”.

NG_Hub will be Facebook’s first community hub in Africa

“One of our key passions at Facebook is nurturing and helping to develop the tech and startup community, and I’m excited to announce our partnership with the Nigerian tech hub ecosystem especially the NG_HUB space, here in Lagos,” said Afigbo.

The hub is part of Facebook’s drive to train and support over 50 000 students, entrepreneurs and small businesses in Nigeria with digital training and through long-term impact programmes.

Other initiatives include:

Aspiring Entrepreneurs: Digital: Facilitated in partnership with the Fate Foundation, this four-week programme will be offered throughout the year in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Ibadan, Kaduna and Enugu.

Boost your Business: This programme is aimed at small and medium-sized business owners, it teaches the fundamentals of digital marketing for business growth. The main aim of the programme is to help businesses owners understand their brand, audience and how to best service them.

Creative Entrepreneurship Training: This programme is aimed at creative content creators.

Featured image: Simon via Pixabay (CC0 Creative Commons)