Thursday, April 23, 2015

Facebook’s Internet.org App Coming To Nigeria By May 2015


Facebook is said to be working to bring its Internet.org app to Nigeria by May 2015, according to Ebele Okobi, the company’s Head of Public Policy in Africa.

During a panel session on broadband policy and regulation at the Mobile West Africa 2015 event in Lagos, Nigeria on Wednesday, Okobi highlighted that the Internet.org platform provides people with free access to basic internet services so they can find useful information such as health, education, finance, employment, communication and local information services without data charges.

The Internet.org platform is already available in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, via the Airtel network in these African countries, except for Tanzania where the company is using Tigo.

It is uncertain which of the mobile operators the company would be partnering with to deliver the app in the Nigerian market, but it seems likely that it would be Airtel, which operates in 17 countries in Africa with Nigeria as its largest market with over 28 million subscribers as at February 2015.

As per the information that would be available on the platform, it is expected that there would be weather information, local and international news, health information, job search, and of course tools for communication such as Facebook and its Messenger app.

Facebook currently has over 13 million users in Nigeria, according to data from its advertising network.

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