Google yesterday hosted its Google for Nigeria with a keynote address by the company's CEO, Sundar Pichai, who announced the launch of Lagos on Street View and said it reflected the company's enhancement of the address search experience in the Nigerian city.

Google said it has added thousands of new addresses and streets, outlines of more than a million buildings in commercial and residential areas, and more than 100,000 additional Nigerian small businesses on Google Maps.

"Today we're launching Lagos on Street View, with 10,000 kilometers of imagery, including the most important historic roads in the city. You can virtually drive along the Carter Bridge to the National Stadium or across the Eko Bridge, down to the Marina - all on your smartphone," said Google Country Manager for Nigeria, Juliet Ehimuan.

The company added that it had exceeded the initial target of its Digital Skills for Africa initiative which aims to help bridge the digital skills gap in Africa. Google is now expanding the initiative and has set a new target – to train 10 million people in the next five years

"We'll also be providing mobile developer training to 100,000 Africans to develop world-class apps, with an initial focus on Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa," Google said.

Launchpad Accelerator Africa

Google recently announced the Launchpad Accelerator Africa which aims to support African entrepreneurs in building successful technology companies and products.

At Google for Nigeria, the company announced that the accelerator program will provide more than US$3 million in equity-free funding, mentorship, working space and access to expert advisers to more than 60 African startups over three years.

It also announced that it is setting up a new Google Launchpad Space in Lagos which is the program's first location outside of the United States.