Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg lands in Nairobi

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg eating fish at the Mama Oliech Restaurant in Hurlingham, Nairobi, on September 1, 2016. PHOTO | COURTESY 

 

 By JOEL MUINDE

In Summary

• Through a post on his Facebook page, Mr Zuckerberg said he wants to "learn more about mobile money, where Kenya is the world leader."

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg landed in Nairobi on Thursday on what he said is a visit to meet techpreneurs developers.

Through a post on his Facebook page, Mr Zuckerberg said he wants to "learn more about mobile money, where Kenya is the world leader."

The billionaire techpreneur's first stop was the iHub, Nairobi's innovation hub for technology, an open space centre for techies, investors, tech companies and hackers.

"I'm starting at a place called iHub, where entrepreneurs can build and prototype their ideas. Two of the engineers I met, Fausto and Mark, designed a system to help people use mobile payments to buy small amounts of cooking gas, which is a lot safer and better for the environment than charcoal or kerosene. It's inspiring to see how engineers here are using mobile money to build businesses and help their community," read Mr Zuckerberg's Facebook post.

Mr Zuckerberg slipped into Kenya much the same way he did in Nigeria where he landed without much fanfare or media publicity.