Facebook is opening its first sales office in Africa, and it’s chosen Johannesburg as the location. The South African office will serve businesses across the continent, the social network said on Monday.
It described the investment as the “first step in furthering our investment in Africa and its people”.
The company has hired advertising industry executive Nunu Ntshingila-Njeke to head up the African operation. She helped build ad agency Ogilvy’s network in sub-Saharan Africa.
The sales team in Africa will focus initially on sub-Saharan Africa, with hubs for East Africa (out of Kenya), West Africa (Nigeria) and Southern Africa (South Africa).
Other countries in which Facebook will operate include Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
“Our teams will partner with governments, telecommunications operators, agencies and other stakeholders to deliver localised solutions to advertisers and users continent-wide,” Facebook said in a statement.
“With more than a billion people, Africa is an important region to Facebook, and our teams want to do more to help people and businesses connect.”
The company said its active user population in Africa has grown 20% to 120m in June 2015 from 100m in September 2014. More than 80% of people across Africa access Facebook from mobile phones. — (c) 2015 NewsCentral Media
