For the web giant, it is now time to take stock of the actions taken and investments made on the African continent during 2019.
Over the course of these 12 months, Facebook has maintained its presence on the continent, contributing to the development of the digital ecosystem in a region where the social media platform has 155 million monthly active users.
To illustrate this, the web giant has published an infographic presenting the main commitments made during the year:
- A commitment to women, with Facebook announcing that it has trained more than 7,000 female entrepreneurs across Africa in digital tools.
- 45 Developer Circles have been created in 17 African countries to support the local tech environment, bringing together more than 70,000 members.
- The Boost With Facebook program was launched in six French-speaking African countries with the goal of training 10,000 African entrepreneurs, microbusinesses, and SMEs in digital marketing tools by 2020.
- Facebook wanted to take responsibility for content with regard to the hundreds of millions of users on the continent. Encouraging freedom of expression while strengthening the security of the user community is the goal set by the web giant. To this end, it has developed a fact-checking program with a network of partners to combat fake news. The project was extended to 10 additional countries in 2019.
- Finally, Facebook announced the creation of the world's most detailed population density maps of Africa, created by Facebook's artificial intelligence researchers to assist humanitarian and relief organizations.
"As a technology and innovation company, Africa represents a promising market in that, with all the opportunities and challenges it presents, it is fertile ground for innovation,"
said Aïda Ndiaye of the Facebook team in an interview with Adweknow.
Read also: Joint interview with Olivia Nloga and Aïda Ndiaye from the Facebook team – French-speaking Africa