Facebook on Thursday released its “2020 Year in Review: Highlights”, an infographic showcasing some of its key investments and work across Africa in 2020.
In a statement, Kojo Boakye, Director of Public Policy, Africa, identified some of the key highlights to include, 2Africa, Supporting the COVID 19 efforts, Economic Impact Training, Developers circles.
Others were Digital Literacy, Supporting Small Medium Businesses, Facebook Journalism Project, Facebook Nigeria office and Blood Donations.
Boakye said that Facebook also launched a campaign supported by an animated video, celebrating and showcasing a few people across the continent rising against the challenges of this unexpected year.
The director said the campaign aimed to highlight the successes, strengths and resilience of its users, whilst reinforcing Facebook’s ongoing commitment to the region.
“We know this year has brought many unexpected challenges around the world, including here in Africa.
‘The COVID pandemic has changed the way we work, come together, and impacted many economies and local businesses.
‘’Despite this, we continue to see and hear so many stories of resilience, strength and growth’’, Boakye said.
He added: ‘’As Facebook, we remain committed to the continent, and our 2020 highlights reinforce just some of these investments and the impact we have been able to have by supporting the growing ecosystems of developers, SMBs, creatives, and many other communities.”
Boakye said Facebook in 2020 also announced 2Africa, alongside eight global and local partners, one of the largest subsea cable projects in the world at 37,000kms, it will circle the African continent, connecting 16 countries, aiming to deliver increased internet capacity and greater 4G/5G access.
According to him, Facebook partnered with over 40 local health authorities, enabling them to run coronavirus education campaigns on Facebook and developed educational pop-ups on Facebook and Instagram.
Boakye said over 55,200 SMBs across 14 countries were trained, through our economic impact programmes, including; Boost with Facebook and SheMeansBusiness, and graduated 229 young people through the Digify Pro programme, with 183 placed in jobs.
Similarly, he added that Facebook partnered with local Blood Banks and health authorities to roll out the blood donation feature in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Rwanda, Senegal, Chad, Namibia, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Zimbabwe and Niger.
He said the over 2.6 million Facebook users signed up to receive blood donation notifications from the blood donation centres. (NAN)