The COVID-19 pandemic worsened the rates of education dropout in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nonetheless, this has caused a rise in the adoption of EdTech, increasing the sector’s worth to $106.46 billion by 2021. By 2026, the industry is expected to have grown to $457.8 billion, growing at a 9.1% annual rate.
Nigeria’s online education market is anticipated to grow to $107.90 million by the end of 2024, presenting a sizable opportunity for private investment.
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Bridging the Urban-Rural Education Divide
Unfortunately, there are significant gaps in the quality of education across the nation, especially between rural and urban regions. While rural schools fall behind, schools in cities are better equipped with resources, highly qualified teachers, and excellent facilities.
The education system’s capacity to fulfil the demands of its expanding population is hampered by several issues, which are made worse by inadequate funding and resource mismanagement.
Leaders driving education innovation
Despite financial difficulties, several EdTech businesses have persisted in their efforts to close the education gap and reach those in need. Some have successfully obtained sizeable investments totalling over $100,000, demonstrating investor faith in the industry’s future.
Ojiugo Uche, CEO of Genti Media, has a diverse consulting, research, education, and human rights background. She founded Genti Media in 2021, an audio platform offering African content in various languages, with $230,000 in seed funding. Ugochukwu Nkwocha, CEO of 9jacodekids, has an Electrical Engineering and Computer Network Administration background. He founded 9jacodekids in 2016, a leading STEM education institute offering coding and robotics programs for kids aged 4-16, with over 5,000 students instructed. In 2022, it received $350,000 in seed funding.
Utiva, a tech-driven virtual environment launched in 2018 that allows people to gain advanced computer skills and transition into new tech occupations, is led by CEO Eyitayo Ogunmola. To expand FLiT and make it a Pan-African digital apprenticeship programme for youth in Africa, Utiva obtained $500,000 in funding. The CEO and co-founder of the 2016 education technology business EDVES is Dimeji Falana. To date, EDVES has raised $766,500 in startup investment.
Semicolon Africa is a tech-enabled educational firm headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. Sam Emmanuel is the CEO of the company. From August 2016 until September 2018, Emmanuel worked as a Client Partner at Teradata in the Greater Detroit Area before joining Semicolon Africa. He was employed at SAP in the EMEA area as a Sales Manager from January 2014 until December 2015.
Nathan Nwachukwu is the CEO of Klas, an Edtech startup founded in 2022. Nwachuku obtained a high school diploma from Graceland International School in Port Harcourt.
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Klas is a platform that enables users to create and sell ebooks, courses, and live classes, and it received 1.36 million dollars in the preseed funding round.
The CEO and creator of uLesson Education Limited, an app designed to provide education to students throughout Africa, is Sim Shagaya. He was instrumental in transforming the digital environment of West Africa as the creator and former CEO of Konga.com, one of the leading e-commerce platforms in the region. He also founded E-Motion Advertising, a well-known out-of-home advertising business that attracted industry notice.
His strategic vision and entrepreneurial skills successfully enabled Loadstad Media to acquire E-Motion Advertising in 2019. Students can purchase digital curricula from Lesson via SD cards. In a financing round, it has raised $25.6 million in total. It got a $15 million Series-B investment in December 2021 from Tencent, Nielsen Ventures, and its current backers.
This is the most significant investment made in an Edtech business in Africa. It has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding earlier in January 2021. Owl Ventures led the round, and TLcom Capital led a $3.1 million seed round for uLesson in 2019.