Over 170 million people in Africa access Facebook, according to latest figures released by the social network, and 94% of these users use mobile devices to access the platform.

The company says it has moved its Johannesburg offices to new premises to "provide an African home for the Facebook culture" and provide support to advertisers, application developers and other partners across Africa.

"Since we first established a direct presence in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015, Facebook has grown from strength to strength," says Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director, Africa, Facebook. "We have enjoyed working closely with entrepreneurs, partners, developers and small businesses as they have used Facebook as a platform for growth. It's inspiring for us to learn from the continent and to play a role in helping people and organisations connect with the world."

Statistics released by the company indicate that since 2015 the number of people connected to Facebook across Africa has grown to 42% to over 170 million monthly active users.

Facebook executives Carolyn Everson, VP Global Marketing Solutions and Nicola Mendelsohn, VP EMEA, attended the launch of the new office together with Ntshingila.

"Facebook is deeply committed to Africa, a mobile-first continent where seven in 10 of all connected people use the platform," says Everson. "Many people in Africa are coming online for the first time, unleashing new possibilities for people and businesses alike. We're also seeing growth of small and medium-sized businesses that are driving economic development, companies that Facebook wants to help grow locally and regionally across the continent."

In March the company announced a partnership with Kenyan ISP Surf in order to launch the public hotspot Express Wi-Fi service.

A month earlier Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer at Facebook, engaged with entrepreneurs and content creators in Nigeria, and emphasised the country's strategic importance to the company.

The visit by Cox to Nigeria, as well as other regions within West Africa followed a visit last year by Mark Zuckerberg during which he interacted with local innovators and startups in Kenya and Nigeria.

Facebook says 8.6 million people in Nigeria access the platform via mobile channels.

The argument that has been put forward from the market is that more Africans would go online if they had reliable internet access - based on figures on world internet usage in comparison with the size of Africa's population.