Facebook Now Has 26 Million Active Users In Nigeria

Social media platform, Facebook has opened its first African technology hub in Nigeria. The company collaborated with the Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) to achieve the milestone.

The hub which will be located at Yaba, a suburb of Lagos, it is named NG_Hub.it will be well equipped with modern technologies to help create a work related environment and a state of the art experience according to the guardians NG.

At the unveiling, Facebook revealed its plan to empower and educate about 50,000 Nigerians youth with digital training, which has commenced already.

At the launch of NG_HUB, Chukwuemeka Afigbo, Manager, Developer Programme at Facebook revealed that has 2.07 billion monthly active users worldwide and 1.37 billion daily active users on average worldwide, and about 26 million Nigerians now log in on the social networking site every month.

Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Vice President of Partnerships said in a speech at the event:

“Technology provides expansive opportunities to engage young, creative and resourceful Nigerians, especially, in delivering solutions to challenges across communities here in Nigeria,”

He added that Facebook’s mission is to build community and bring the world closer together.

“NG_Hub provides that physical space that will serve as a centre of learning and skills development in Lagos, and I am excited about the possibilities that this will create,” he said.

Facebook also announced partnerships with seven other hubs across the country. The hubs include Ventures Platform (Abuja); nHub (Jos); Colab Hub (Kaduna); DI Hub (Kano); Start Innovation Hub (Uyo); Roar Hub (Enugu); and Ken Saro Wiwa Hub (Port Harcourt).

As at February 2016, when Facebook released its last official report, over 16 million Nigerians used Facebook actively every month. These new figures tell us that between 2016 and now, about 10 million more Nigerians have become active on Facebook, an indication that mobile penetration in Nigeria is growing significantly.

There are so many reasons for this growth, firstly is the increasing smartphone adoption in Nigeria owing to a dip in the prices of smartphones. And this factor has made smartphones affordable and with this it has prompted the growth of the Facebook users.

Secondly, another reason is the fall in the price of mobile data. If smartphone gets affordable, and the price for mobile data become extremely low then if people can browse so then can also be online on the social network. In October 2016, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) lifted the data floor price, giving operators liberty to drop their data tariffs as it suits them. The lift in the price led to a competitive mobile data market affording Nigerians access to Internet data at cheaper prices.

Now, network providers allow affordable social bundle subscription that allows Nigerians access social networking sites of their choice for as low as ₦25 daily, depending on the plan.

Judging by these numbers from analysis and recent projections, mobile penetration in Nigeria will continue to grow exponentially.