Facebook sets to launch its Sabee App for Nigerian Learners

The internal Research and Development (R&D) team at Facebook has announced it is working on an educational mobile app called Sabee. A report from TechCrunch said that the Sabee app is currently in early alpha testing with fewer than 100 testers who are under non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with Facebook.

The Sabee app which is currently unavailable for anyone else presently will be targeted at Nigerian learners when it is finally launched as Facebook hopes to scale it to the next stage before the end of the year.

The name “Sabee” is coined from the Nigerian Pidgin word Sabi which means “to know”. Through the app, Facebook aims to connect learners and educators in online communities to make educational opportunities more accessible in Nigeria.

Facebook’s Product Lead, Emeka Okafor speaking on the app said that it is aimed at building communities in Nigeria.

“There are 50 million learners, but only 2 million educators in Nigeria. 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.”

Facebook is also looking to better serve groups that are often left behind by technology, so the team behind Sabee is working to create an app that works with connectivity as low as 2G.

When launched, Sabee will be one of Facebook’s larger strategies of focusing more on serving the African continent, starting with Nigeria.