Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg visited sub-Saharan Africa for the first time in January 2021

The Facebook founder met with local businesses and developers in Nigeria, to discuss how his company could support technology and business development.

His visit included a trip to Yaba, known as Nigeria's Silicon Valley, where he toured a camp where children learn to code and met with nearly 50 start-up founders and developers at CcHub, a local innovation hub. Zuckerberg told CNN: "There is so much energy and so much potential here, I just want to walk around and meet the people."

This year Zuckerberg has become more involved in African initiatives. In June, his founding The Zuckerberg Chan Initiative made a multi-million dollar investment in Andela, a two-year-old company that trains African software developers and places them in full-time positions at international companies. Andela has offices in Lagos and Nairobi, Kenya, so the young American businessman also paid a visit to the office in the country's capital. Andela's director, Seni Sulyman, said they were delighted to welcome Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg has also supported an initiative called Free Basics, which offers free Internet access to cell phone users in countries with few services, including Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya; It operates in more than 20 countries in Africa and recently arrived in Nigeria.

The Free Basics application (which is run by Facebook unit Internet.org) allows mobile phone users to access certain types of information related to areas such as health and employment. However, the application is not without controversy. India's telecoms regulator blocked the service in February, arguing that providers should charge the same price for content.

Critics have also countered that the program violates fundamental principles of net neutrality, which stipulate that all Internet content and users must be treated equally. Choosing free content is not considered fair or correct, they claim.

Late last year, Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, publicly pledged to donate billions of Facebook shares to fund charitable causes and projects that promote human potential and equality through The Zuckerberg Chan Initiative.

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