The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, on Wednesday showed support for Nigerian developers following the launch of Free Basics in Lagos, Nigeria.
Free Basics by Facebook provides free access to basic internet services to over a billion people around the world.
Zuckerberg expressed excitement at the level of success achieved by African developers and praised Jobberman founders – Olalekan Elude, Ayodeji Adewunmi and Opeyemi Awoyemi – for their innovation.
Zuckerberg posted: Today we’re partnering with Airtel Africa to launch Internet.org Free Basics in Nigeria.
There’s a lot of innovation across Africa right now, and Nigeria in particular is home to a lot of talented developers.
In 2009, Olalekan Elude, Ayodeji Adewunmi and Opeyemi Awoyemi started a site called Jobberman in their dorm to help connect people looking for work with companies looking to hire. Now Jobberman is one of the top 100 websites in Nigeria, and it gets 5,000 applications every day.
Free Basics offers Nigerians, including 90 million people who are currently offline, the opportunity to access news, health information and services like Jobberman that were built by Nigerians and other developers across West Africa — all without having to pay for data.
Free Basics is now live in more than 40 countries, and half of those are in Africa. Over the next few months, we’ll be doing even more to connect developers with people who can use their apps — and partner with local companies to bring internet to people across Africa who don’t have access to mobile networks.
Facebook Founder shows support for Nigerian developers
