By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Facebook has increased its interest in Nigeria by creating an app called Sabee – pidgin for “to know” – which connects learners and educators in Africa’s most populous nation where education is the single biggest indigenous industry.
Facebook had in September last year announced plans for a Nigeria office in the tech hub of Lagos, four years after Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg visited the country.
Techpoint.africa recalls that Zuckerberg trekked over two kilometres through the streets of Yaba in Lagos to get to Andela, the tech talent accelerator in which he had recently invested $24 million.
The office is expected to become operational by the second half of 2021 after a team of engineers, sales, partnership, policy, and communication staff would have been recruited.
Ime Archibong, Facebook Head of New Product Experimentation, said the firm is attracted to Nigeria’s pool of tech talents, some of whom would be recruited to help build products focused on Africa and grow its tech ecosystem.
Operations from the new Lagos office is anticipated to boost growth on the African continent.
Facebook has for six years run its Africa operations from its first Africa headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, headed by Nunu Ntshingila-Njeke.
The activities of the HQ were planned with an initial focus on Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria.
Sabee tied to larger strategy
TechCruch reports that Sabee was briefly published to Google Play by “NPE Team”, the internal R&D group at Facebook which typically focuses on new social experiences in areas like dating, audio, music, video, messaging, and more.
While the learnings from the NPE Team’s apps sometimes inform broader Facebook efforts, it hasn’t yet produced an app that has graduated to become a standalone Facebook product.
Many of its earlier apps have also shut down, including (somewhat sadly), the online zine creator Eg.g, video app Hobbi, calling app CatchUp, friend-finder Bump, podcast community app Venue, and several others.
Sabee, however, represents a new direction for the NPE Team, as it’s not about building yet another social experiment.
Instead, Sabee is tied to Facebook’s larger strategy of focusing more on serving the African continent, starting with Nigeria.
This is a strategic move, says TechCrunch, informed by data that indicates a larger majority of the world’s population will be in urban centers by 2030, and much of that will be on the African continent and throughout the Middle East.
By 2100, Africa’s population is expected to have tripled, with Nigeria becoming the second-most populated country in the world, behind China.
To address the need to connect these regions to the internet, Facebook teamed with telcos on 2Africa, a subsea cable project that aims to serve the over one billion people still offline in Africa and the Middle East.
Investment for profit
These aren’t altruistic investments, of course – Facebook knows its future growth will come from these demographics.
Facebook confirmed its plans for Sabee to TechCrunch after we discovered it, noting it was still a small test for the time being.
“There are 50 million learners, but only two million educators in Nigeria,” said Facebook Product Lead, Emeka Okafor.
“With this small, early test, we’re hoping to understand how we can help educators build communities that make education available to everyone. We look forward to learning with our early testers, and deciding what to do from there.”
The disparity between learners and educators in Nigeria greatly impacts women and girls, which is another key focus for Sabee – and the NPE Team’s efforts in the region as a whole.
The company also wants to explore how to better serve groups who are often left behind by technology.
On this front, Sabee is working to create an experience that works with low connectivity, like 2G.
No waiting list for Sabee
TechCrunch says it understands the app is currently in early alpha testing with fewer than 100 testers who are under Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with Facebook.
It’s not available for anyone else beyond that group at present, but the company hopes to scale Sabee to the next stage before the end of the year.
There is no way to sign up for a Sabee waitlist, and the app is no longer public on Google Play. It was available so briefly that it was never ranked on any charts, app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower confirmed to TechCrunch.
“Sabee” and “sabi/sabis” have other, less-polite meanings in different languages, per Urban Dictionary. But the team has no plans to change the name for now as it makes sense in the Nigerian market where the app is targeted.