The social network is partnering with France's Eutelsat Communications to launch the satellite, called AMOS-6, which will cover a swathe of the continent taking in parts of West, East and Southern Africa.
It is part of Facebook's Internet.org platform which seeks to expand internet access, mainly via mobile phones, by partnering with a range of telecommunications firms.
The satellite, currently under construction, is due to be launched in 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement on his Facebook profile.
He said that Facebook would "keep working to connect the entire world - even if that means looking beyond our planet".
The Internet.org platform offers free access to pared-down web services, focused on job listings, agricultural information, healthcare and education, as well as Facebook's own social network and messaging services.
Growth in the number of people with access to the internet is slowing, and more than half the world's population is still offline, the UN Broadband Commission said last month.
According to the Internet.org website only one in three people "can go online".
Facebook has nearly 20 million users in major African markets Nigeria and Kenya, statistics released by it showed last month, with a majority using mobile devices to access their profiles.
The company opened its first African office in Johannesburg in June.
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