The African subsidiary of Meta Platforms, owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have announced that the next deployment of the Metaverse will be in Côte d’Ivoire.
Meta’s Director of Public Policy for Africa, Balkissa Ide Siddo said at a forum held on Friday (May 19, 2023) in Abidjan that the metaverse “could help medical students practice surgical techniques and could also bring school lessons to life in new and exciting ways.”
Meanwhile, this will not be the first time Meta Platforms is introducing the metaverse to Africa. Six months ago, Meta launched its first Metaverse experience in Africa at a mixed-reality concert in Lagos, Nigeria.
The event, tagged #FlexNaija, introduced creators to a bold new world of possibilities in the Metaverse with three major entry points aimed at increasing the dynamism and versatility of the internet user experience.
The three entry points, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Avatars, and Augmented Reality, opened up creators to the future of social media by exposing them to expanding and monetising their content and leveraging on modern technology to increase engagement with their communities in the future.
Speaking with journalists at the event, the Communication Manager for Anglophone West Africa, Ms Oluwasola Obagbemi, noted that the decision to launch Africa’s Metaverse journey in Nigeria is strategic as Nigerian creators play a leading role in content creation in Africa and the world.
She added that Meta birthed the campaign incubated earlier in the year to collaborate with creators to amplify the user experience of creators and their communities.
