Facebook on Friday reaffirmed Nigeria as its biggest market in Africa.
As internet users in Nigeria shot up, so is the popularity of social media giant, Facebook in the last three years. New data released by Facebook while celebrating its 12 years indicates 16 million people in Nigeria visit Facebook every month.
Edging out South Africa 12 million monthly users and Kenya 4.5 million.
The report shows 7.2 million users from Nigeria visit Facebook on a daily basis, with 97 percent of them accessing the platform via mobile devices.
“Nigerians are sophisticated mobile users and this sophistication is increasing fast—people are ahead of businesses,” said Nunu Ntshingila, head of Africa for Facebook.
Nigeria’s rapid internet growth is expected to continue to open up opportunities to generate substantial revenues for both Nigerian entrepreneurs and Facebook, as a result the social network giant is looking to deepen its partnership with Nigerian businesses.
According to Nunu Ntshingila
“This is the year we deepen our partnerships with Nigerian businesses. We’re committed to Nigeria, and during this visit we shared insights with our business and agency partners on how to deliver personalised marketing, at scale, where people are – on their mobile phone. We want to make sure Nigeria – its people, its agencies and its businesses – realise the opportunity that technology and mobile bring.
We know the mobile platform people use the most in Nigeria is Facebook and up to 77% of Nigerians on Facebook use their mobile device to discover new products and services. Nigerians are sophisticated mobile users and this sophistication is increasing fast – people are ahead of businesses, and we’re here to help businesses create mobile-first solutions to grow their business.”
Though Facebook is popular in Nigeria and Africa as a whole but its revenues are still modest according to Facebook’s fourth quarter earnings for 2015. Africa and South America generate revenue of just $1.22 per user, while Facebook generate 11 times that amount in North America.
The social media giant is hoping to increase its users in the continent through its widely publicized internet.org initiative of using satellite to beam internet to users.
