Facebook CEO hosts his first developer Q&A in Africa, from Lagos, Nigeria

folarin okunola

August 31, 2016 3:10 PM

Zuckerberg answered questions ranging from if he has had a taste of Nigerian Jollof and pounded yam to the plans that Facebook has for WhatsApp in the future.

Live screening of the town hall Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg

In keeping up with 'Mark Zuckerberg is in Nigeria' fever, as soon as I discovered that the Facebook king was going to hold a developers workshop at Landmark Centre in V.I, I jumped into my car and sped away.

Once I got there though, I was met with less enthusiasm because I wasn't invited (only 60 people in all of Nigeria were) and could not even get past the gate.

So what do I do? I get myself to the Eko Hotel and Suites - also in V.I - to watch the press screening. At least if I cannot speak to the man himself or watch him speak in person, I should be able to watch him do it on a large screen with air conditioning and great food.

One strong takeaway from watching Mark Zuckerberg speak is that he is by and large a very normal guy. He wore a dark grey shirt with jeans and not-so-stylish Nike trainers. Just a regular guy.

He also spoke like you would expect of any average person. There were no needless big words, no ignorant references. He was descriptive, affectionate, and straight to the point.

Ime Archibong, while kicking off the Q&A session said: "When I came to Lagos back in May this year I was really struck by the energy of the tech scene here and by how many people were building. As someone with strong links to Nigeria, I've been trying to expose Mark to this ecosystem for a while so I am very excited for him to be able to come here and meet some of Nigeria's top entrepreneurs and developers today."

ALSO READ: 5 reasons good enough to make Mark Zuckerberg visit Nigeria

As for Zuckerberg, he answered questions ranging from if he has had a taste of Nigerian Jollof and pounded yam to the plans that Facebook has for WhatsApp in the future.

According to him, "I decided to come to Lagos first because of the vibrant developer and entrepreneurial ecosystem you guys have here - I think the world needs to see that."

Zuckerberg also acknowledges that Nigeria is experiencing a lot of drastic change, citing the fact that the economy is becoming less resource based and more entrepreneurial and knowledge-based economy.

Did you know that every Friday, at the Facebook Headquarters, Mark Zuckerberg holds a town hall Q&A with Facebook staff and anyone else that wants to have a chat with him? No? Neither did I but Zuckerberg was happy to share at the Q&A event.

At the end of the Q&A, Zuckerberg had given us with more knowledge that we went in with, an abundance of funny anecdotes, and genuine inspiration.

The Facebook Developer Workshop continues but will not be open to the press because Zuck is not about that life.

folarin okunola