Nigeria embraces digital innovators

Over the last decade digital innovators and entrepreneurs have launched startups including PrepClass and PassNowNow. For its part, PrepClass operates as a amartketplace for connecting after-school tutors to learners while PassNowNow allows users access high school class notes for several subjects and past exam questions for a fee.

Last October, CCHub, the influential Lagos-based tech and social enterprise hub, opened an edtech center at The Tai Solarin University of Education in Ijebu-Ode, about two hours outside of Lagos. “Education is the bedrock of healthy societies,” wrote CCHub co-founder Bosun Tijani in a tweet celebrating the launch. “As we continue to contribute to shaping the innovation ecosystem in Africa, accelerating the application of innovation and technology in improving education outcomes will be crucial to driving our overall agenda.”

ULessson’s  service and features are anchored on its mobile app through which users can register, take tests and have their learning progress measured, uLesson’s offline component will see it send its full library of learning content to registered users on SD cards. Content on the cards can then be plugged into phones and accessed seamlessly and without the associated cost of downloads or streaming online.

With the problem of under-funding education also prevalent in other African countries, Shagaya has pan-African ambitions for uLesson. The service will be immediately available to secondary school students in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia—the five Anglophone West African countries that share similar curricula and take school-leaving tests set by the West African Examinations Council.

Ultimately, Shagaya will be hoping uLesson fares much better than Konga which was sold, likely at a major loss to investors, in early 2018. But a long history of demand for better education alternatives among Nigerians suggests uLesson will find a willing market. In 2018 alone, the economic impact of spending by Nigerian students studying in the United States reached $514 million while better education choices is also a factor  driving migration of middle-class Nigerians to Canada and Europe.

Membership Plans

Choose a membership plan that'... Read more

Online Courses

Inspiring learning experiences on... Read more

ICEDT Community

Join the latest discussions and b... Read more

High Quality Events

Don't miss ICEDT Community an... Read more

Mentorship Programs

Enjoy edtech experts' mentors... Read more

Teaching Resources

Download cutting-edge re... Read more

© 2024 International Community for Educational Technology. All rights reserved.