Meta to Reduce Workforce in Nigeria after Global Layoffs

Emma Okonji

Meta, which operates Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, yesterday said it would reduce its office space in Lagos after its global layoffs in mid 2023 affected its Nigerian team.
Meta said this in a statement that it would reduce its office space in Nigeria, a development that will lead to reduction of its workforce in Nigeria.
According to the statement: “We are making focused, balanced investments to support our most strategic long-term priorities, and are firmly committed to Nigeria.

“We regularly review our office spaces to ensure they suit the needs of the business, and the office in Nigeria is no different as outlined by Mark (Zuckerberg) in late 2022 when referencing company cuts.
As the company’s shrinks its real estate footprint, it stated that it was transitioning to desk sharing for people, who already spend most of their time outside the office.

Meta, in 2023 laid off staff globally. The company’s engineering team, which had several employees according to a 2022 report, was laid off.
According to Meta: “Engineers continue to serve the region from a number of our global engineering hubs outside of Nigeria,”
Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, had in 2022, explained some of the challenges facing the company.

He said: “At the start of COVID, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended.

“ I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.

 “In this new environment, we need to become more capital efficient. We’ve shifted more of our resources onto a smaller number of high priority growth areas — like our AI discovery engine, our ads and business platforms, and our long-term vision for the metaverse.

“We’ve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint. We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency.

“But these measures alone won’t bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I’ve also made the hard decision to let people go.”