Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg has showered praises for Nigerian
developers following the launch on Tuesday 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.
He 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.
Here is Zuckerberg’s post on the launch:
“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.”