Google used its Google for Nigeria event to showcase a series of new products and tools designed to help consumers in Africa, as well as pledge an additional US$4-million towards youth development.

The company unveiled a dedicated travel mode in Google Maps to provide directions and navigation for motorcycles in Nigeria. This will be made available in Benin Republic, Ghana, Rwanda, Togo and Uganda.

It also launched navigation instructions in a Nigerian voice for both motorcycle and car driving modes.

"In the next few months, Google will introduce a new directions experience for Lagos that is optimised for informal transit, bringing Danfo routes into Google Maps," according to statement released by Google.

It added: "To help make it easier to visually explore places in Nigeria, Google is publishing more panoramic imagery on Street View. Starting with imagery of Lagos two years ago, today Google added Street View imagery of Abuja, Benin City, Enugu and Ibadan - with almost 12 thousand kilometres of roads added."

Online safety curriculum

Google has partnered with the Nigerian Government to make an online safety curriculum available to all primary and secondary school students in the country.

The company claims it will reach an estimated 56 million students every year.

In 2017 the company committed to train 10 million people in Africa on digital skills over five years.

Two years on and according to Google, 4 million people have been trained, including 15 000 developers.

"... and awarded 33,000 scholarships to help African developers become certified on Android, Web, and Cloud technologies. 35 startups have graduated through the Launchpad Accelerator Africa program and, last year, Google awarded $6-million to 36 non-profit organisations across Africa through the Google Impact Challenge. "

The company said it would commit an additional US$4-million to support youth empowerment, gender equality and agriculture, "alongside piloting new initiatives to power the social impact ecosystem and promote research on what the future of work looks like for African youth."

Google Nigeria country director Juliet Ehimaun Chiazor said: "We hope that the products and updates we're announcing today will make Google even more helpful for fuelling people's hustles and getting things done. We remain committed to bringing the transformational power of technology to everyone in Nigeria and Africa as a whole."