Social media company, Meta, has injected an estimated $820 million into the Nigerian economy through its digital platform ecosystem, as local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly rely on social commerce to survive macroeconomic headwinds.
 
According to new independent research, the tech giant’s suite of applications, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has successfully expanded the customer base for 81 per cent of Nigerian businesses, cementing the platforms’ roles as critical engines of local trade and the digital transition.
 
The findings, which highlighted a massive reliance on social media architecture to bypass traditional, often costly, brick-and-mortar barriers in Africa’s most populous market, noted that while Meta is contributing an estimated $820 million in yearly economic value to Nigeria today, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption set to add $22 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
by 2035.

The “Nigeria’s Digital Economy” report, conducted by independent research firm, Public First, finds that under the right conditions, this figure could grow to $2 billion as digital adoption deepens with Meta’s platforms functioning as essential digital infrastructure connecting Nigerian entrepreneurs to customers, markets, and new economic opportunity.
 
The findings revealed that 14 million Nigerian SMEs used Meta’s apps, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Meta AI, and Threads, to start and grow their businesses in 2025, contributing $2 billion to Nigeria’s GDP and delivering an estimated $640 million in productivity gains through more efficient instant messaging.
 
The report noted that WhatsApp is playing a central role in connecting Nigerians to AI and new economic opportunities across the region. The platform serves as Nigerians’ primary AI surface, reflecting the wider regional pattern where 93 per cent of Meta AI prompts in Sub-Saharan Africa are made via WhatsApp, demonstrating how AI adoption in Nigeria is happening through the tools people already use every day.
 
Director of Public Policy, Sub-Saharan Africa at Meta, Balkissa Ide Siddo, said: “Nigeria is one of the most dynamic, entrepreneurial, and digitally engaged markets in the world, and this research makes clear the scale of what is possible when Nigerian ambition meets the right digital tools.
 
“From a tailor in Lagos reaching customers across the country through Instagram, to a small business owner in Kano taking orders on WhatsApp, to a creator in Abuja building a global audience on Facebook, Meta’s platforms are removing the traditional barriers to growth and unlocking real economic opportunity.