Facebook is working on an international mobile app called ‘Sabee’ with its Internal Research and Development (R&D) team. This team seeks to provide solution to the ever-growing learning population of the country with this app, by effectively bridging the gap between educators and learners.
‘Sabee’ is a word in Nigerian pidgin which means ‘to know’. The app aims to connect Nigerian learners and educators in online communities when it is launched.
TechCrunch reported that Sabee is currently in the early testing stage with fewer than 100 testers who are under non-disclosure agreements (NDS) with Facebook after the company confirmed its plans in an interview.
Emeka Okafor, Product Lead at Facebook stated, “There are 50 million learners but only 2 million educators in Nigeria. With this small, early test, we are 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”.
Currently, Sabee is not available for anyone else beyond the small group of testers but Facebook hopes to scale Sabee to the next stage before the end of the year.
The app is aimed at connecting learners and educators to provide a platform to make educational opportunities more accessible in Nigeria as well as serving the African continent. Facebook is also aiming to better serve the populace lagging behind in technology. The team behind the app intends to create a fully functional and creative space that is accessible to internet connectivity as low as 2G.
Last year, Facebook opened its first Nigerian office in the country’s commercial tech hub, Lagos. It is staffed with a team of engineers and communication personnel and the Sabee app is one of the first products to emerge from this office.
