Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has dismissed 3,600 employees worldwide, including staff in Nigeria and across Africa.
According to reports, the company communicated the layoffs through an internal memo, with only employees in Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands exempted.
Meta stated that affected employees across Africa, Asia, and other parts of Europe will receive their termination notices between February 11 and 18, 2025.
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A Meta spokesperson for sub-Saharan Africa described the move as part of the company’s routine performance-based layoffs, downplaying the scale of the cuts. However, the exact number of affected employees in Africa remains unclear.
“We have communicated transparently that, following our recent performance review cycle, we plan to exit our lowest-performing employees. We have the highest confidence in the fairness and robustness of our performance review process leading to these decisions, and impacted employees are being provided with generous severance packages,” a Meta spokesperson said.
The severance package includes 16 weeks of base salary, with an additional two weeks for each year of service. It also covers full payment for unused paid time off, six months of healthcare benefits, three months of career support, and immigration assistance where applicable.
The layoffs come as Meta is ramping up its focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and shifting resources toward automation and operational efficiency.
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While the company frames these terminations as part of routine restructuring, affected employees in Nigeria, Africa, and beyond now face an uncertain job market amid the tech industry’s ongoing transformation.
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