Facebook highlighted its commitment to Nigerian content partners and developers with a full calendar of workshops, masterclasses and events at Social Media Week in Lagos, held from 22 to 26 February. The weeklong conference was an ideal opportunity for Facebook to showcase its commitment to local partners as well as share its latest best practices with Nigerian content companies and developers.
Emeka Afigbo, Product Partnerhsips Manager at Facebook, said: “With 16 million people in Nigeria visiting Facebook each month, we are constantly looking for ways to deepen our partnerships in the country. Social Media Week in Lagos was a perfect opportunity for us to spend time with the Nigerian developer and content community to share expertise and get feedback to shape our strategy going forward.”
“We were inspired by the innovative thinking that we saw from the Nigerian partner community, and look forward to working with them to deliver rich, personalised services and solutions for people and businesses in West Africa. Nigeria’s agencies, people, and businesses are ahead of the curve in using mobile-first solutions to connect.”
Highlights of the week included: A Media Partnerships Masterclass; The Instawalk Walking Photo Tour – The Africa You Don’t See; a Women in Tech: Nigeria Chapter; a Masterclass on The Internet of Me – making connections, building community and sharing your voice presented with She Leads Africa and a Facebook media breakfast.
The week culminated with a Developer Day and Codelab, where Facebook experts worked with top Nigerian developers on growth hacking and the design of social apps using the Facebook platform.
Developers were given advice about how to increase their consumer base and engagement using tools such Facebook Social Graph, Analytics for Apps and other APIs. The programme included a heavy focus on mobile development, especially on the Android platform.
Facebook also updated the Nigerian market about the progress of Free Basics, a programme that brings relevant basic internet services without data charges to people in growing countries. It has added a number of new partners to the Free Basics ecosystem, including the SmartBusiness website that helps people get information needed to launch and run businesses using any web enabled phone or computer.
