FACEBOOK intends to take feedback
and inspiration from the developer and content creator communities back to
California following his visits to Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal this week.
Chris Cox, Chief Product
Officer who was in West Africa to find out how the region’s creatives,
developers and entrepreneurs are using Facebook and Instagram to bring their
passions to life, said: “It’s been an inspiring week meeting with some of the
top artists, publishers, entrepreneurs, developers, and social media stars
across the region.”
According to him, the region
that creates some of the most interesting cultures in the world – from food, to
fashion, to music, to art, adding that “They are at the leading edge of using
mobile technology to build communities in their cities, countries, and around
the region, and in solving local problems with local solutions. We left
inspired, and with insights on the real challenges we have to improve our
services-from internet connectivity to more regional support and tools.”
Cox started his trip on a
high by seeing Femi Kuti live on stage at the New Afrika Shrine in Lagos.
Chris, who is an accomplished pianist, was invited to play live on stage with
Femi, an experience he will never forget.
Chris said: “It was an
honour to play live with one of my musical heroes. The Shrine is one of the
great institutions in music history and in the political history of the region.
It was also the first time a concert has been live broadcast on Facebook from
The Shrine.
“Femi’s team was inspired
by how many folks around the city, the region, and the world wanted to tune in,
and we were too. We were surprised by how many Nigerians told us how exciting
it was to see a concert from there. We think there’s a great opportunity for
Live to give the whole world a window into some of these gems of local
culture.”
Whilst he was in Nigeria
he spoke at Social Media Week Lagos-the region’s premier new media and social
media conference-Cox highlighted Nigeria’s status as a hub for innovation and
creativity because of its fast-growing mobile technology sector and its vibrant
film and music industries.
He focused on how the world is moving to digital
video, with formats such as virtual reality, Live video broadcast and 360 video
giving people new ways to tell their stories.
Chris then moved to Ghana
where he visited the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in
Accra, Ghana. Meltwater is the premiere start-up-school and incubator in Ghana,
bringing in some of the top aspiring tech entrepreneurs and engineers from
around the continent to develop their businesses.
During his visit Chris
loved meeting the team from Asoriba, already hugely successful software for
church communities-which is extremely important and central in Ghana and
Nigeria. He talked with the founders of Asorbia about how technology can be
used to strengthen communities.
Later in Ghana he
witnessed the force of Ghana’s creative talent in an event at ANO Gallery,
which was co-hosted by and ANO Gallery and Bless The Mic. During the event,
some of Ghana's top talent spoke about how they have used technology to tell
their stories and grow their audiences.
Top Ghanaian musician
M.anifest said, “We have some really compelling stories to share in Ghana, not
just with other Ghanaians but with audiences around the world” adding that the remarkable
thing about Facebook is that “it gives us cutting-edge and exciting new ways to
connect with people and to tell our stories ourselves and in our own way.”
Corinne Erambert of Les
Atelier De Corrine said he has Facebook and Instagram to build a community of
food lovers who come to my pages to see videos and photos of the new dishes I
am trying out noting, “I often give people recipes within my posts so that if
people like the look of the food I make, they can try it out at home.”
According to Cox, it was
exciting and inspiring to see how technology is giving entrepreneurs and
content creators across West Africa new opportunities to reach their audiences
stressing, “I felt privileged to see how developers, content creators and
entrepreneurs are using Facebook and Instagram to help solve local problems or
tell local stories.”
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