By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Facebook , online social networking service firm said it has nearly 20 million users in Nigerian and Kenya with majority using mobile devices to access their profile, a Reuters report on Thursday quoted statistics from the social network.
The report says Facebook opened its first African office in Johannesburg in June as the continent’s growing population and relatively low levels of internet access present a large untapped market for the social network to earn advertising revenue.
According to the report, the numbers being the first Facebook has published for Nigeria and Kenya show the two (2) nations as important entry points on a continent of nearly one (1) billion people.
It disclosed Nigeria had 15 million monthly active users as of June 30 this year, all of them using mobiles to like, share and upload content on the social network. While in Kenya, 95 percent of the 4.5 million monthly active users did so via mobiles.
The report quoted Nunu Ntshingila, Facebook’s head of Africa, in a statement as saying that”Mobile is not a trend; it’s the fastest adoption of disruptive technology in history of communication.”
It reveals that South Africa has 12 million monthly active Facebook users, according to the data showed, and Facebook says with its strong advertising partnerships in Africa it would use the new office in Johannesburg to expand its business across the continent.
The social networking service firm further affirmed its active user population in Africa grew 20 percent to 120 million in June from 100 million in September last year. “A large portion of these users were in North Africa,” the report said.
