Chris Cox, chief product officer at Facebook will be using feedback from the developer and content creator communities back to California following his visits to Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal this week
Cox was recently in West Africa to find out how the region’s creatives, developers and entrepreneurs are using Facebook and Instagram to support their endeavours.
“It’s been an inspiring week meeting with some of the top artists, publishers, entrepreneurs, developers, and social media stars across the region. This is a region that creates some of the most interesting cultures in the world – from food, to fashion, to music, to art,” said Chris.
“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.”
Chris also attended an event with local tech entrepreneurs where he took part in a discussion about building tech products in Francophone Africa. It involved some of the region’s most promising developers:
- Omar Cissé, CEO at In Touch - a Senegalese mobile payments and digital services aggregator;
- Jimmy Kumako from Coin Afrique (http://CoinAfrique.com) - an online marketplace designed to simplify the exchange of goods and services in French-speaking Africa;
- Malick Ndiyae, Cabinet Minister, Post and Telecommunications, Senegal;
- Seynabou Thiam, from Neylam Services (http://v2.NelamServices.com) - a creative digital agency based in Dakar, Senegal.
Commenting on his experience Cox said, “It was exciting and inspiring to see how technology is giving entrepreneurs and content creators across West Africa new opportunities to reach their audiences. 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."
