By Stephen Akintayo
Well The Next Richest Man in the world took some time off Silicon Valley to have great vacation with his wife. Mark was in Rome with his wife, Priscilla, until a few hours ago (according to his Facebook page). He held a Q&A session, visited the Pope and did a few “touristy” things.
The unannouced Visit to Nigeria as I stay back in Silicon Valley to help him take care of some Business. Lol!
Nigeria is the next Silicon Valley and soon the same way Nigeria is exporting the Gospel of Jesus which was once imported to us, will soon be exporting tech solutions to the world. Don’t forget that I made this statement.
There’s been a lot of Facebook-related development in Nigeria so there’s a ton of reasons why Mark visited. First, remember his post on FREE Wifi and Jobberman? Free Basics launched in Nigeria and Mark showed his support for the Jobberman team. Then the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative invested $24 million in Andela. Facebook’s developer workshop is happening tomorrow, and yesterday, we reported that Facebook is partnering with Cool Link to launch Express Wifi in Lagos some time this week.
Mark is here to take advantage of all the developments in Tech and see a way to get details first hand. – Some key Business he took interest in include visit Jobberman, the Andela team he’s invested in, attend the developer workshop, launch Express Wifi AND have policy-centred conversations with the Nigerian government to further Facebook’s cause. Should I say Up Mark or Up Facebook!
~Stephen Akintayo