Facebook's efforts to connect the world took a major step forward with the launch of Internet.org Free Basics in Nigeria, Africa's most populated nation.
The social network is teaming up with mobile carrier Airtel Africa to bring more than 85 free services covering health, education, jobs and finance to its customers.
Internet.org said in a blog post:
Free Basics provides basic mobile websites and services for free to people around the world, providing them with an on-ramp to the internet and demonstrating the value the internet can provide. Free Basics will launch in Nigeria with more than 85 free services dedicated to health, education, jobs and finance.
To date, we estimate that our connectivity efforts, which include Free Basics, have brought more than 25 million people online who wouldn't be otherwise. More than one-half of the 40 Free Basics countries are in Africa.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg added in a post of his own (embedded below):
There's a lot of innovation across Africa right now, and Nigeria in particular is home to a lot of talented developers.
In 2009, Olalekan Elude, Ayodeji Adewunmi and Opeyemi Awoyemi started a site called Jobberman in their dorm to help connect people looking for work with companies looking to hire. Now Jobberman is one of the top 100 websites in Nigeria, and it gets 5,000 applications every day.
Free Basics offers Nigerians, including 90 million people who are currently offline, the opportunity to access news, health information and services like Jobberman that were built by Nigerians and other developers across West Africa–all without having to pay for data.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
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