With the education sector receiving 8.8% of the 2024 budget, stakeholders are optimistic as they prepare for what should be an exciting year. Precious Chukwudi of Vanguard met with Mr. Alex Onyia, the founder of Educare, one of the top educational platforms in Africa. Mr. Onyia, in the course of the interview, discussed the cutting-edge solutions his platform has been bringing to the forefront of education in Nigerian schools. He recounted Educare's growth, penetration and step-by-step decisions he made to ensure the start-up remained purpose-driven. The CEO of Educare also explained how Educare is addressing the intricate problems that educational institutions encounter while trying to manage general operations.
How did you, a graduate of agricultural and bio-resources engineering, end up in the educational sector? What is the link? What inspired Educare?
I wouldn't say I've been so passionate about education. But I know I've been very passionate about software, and I've always wanted to create software that can transform different industries.
One of the industries that I found most interesting over the years is education, and that's why we had to focus our investment on education.
So far, what are the key problems you have solved in the Nigerian education system that you most value?
In 2015, when we started, Lekki British School reached out to us to build software for them that could help them manage their entire school process. They said they had reached out to six different companies, and nobody could do what they wanted to do.
So we found it very interesting. We worked on it, and they fell in love with it. So we then realised that if these people can fall in love with this, it would be nice to build it up as something that can scale across several other schools. That was when the journey of Educare started, and then we started building.
We never knew that it'd take us this long to build something amazing. But we continued the journey, and a lot more schools started adopting it across different regions. I think one of the key things that sets us apart is the reliability of the software -- some software that you can trust. I mean, use it like it's natural; that's one key thing.
Secondly, there is support. I mean, this is the best support you can ever see in this space. Then, thirdly, we have all the features in one place. So anything we tell you is what it truly is. So this is like the first time most schools are now dropping what is foreign and using Nigeria because we are actually the best.
Most start-ups talk about capital and hostile business environments. What is your peculiar story?
I believe that business is all about solving problems, and from day one, I've always looked at capital as something that shouldn't even be a barrier. The most difficult thing is figuring out what people need and partnering with the best people to solve it.
So we never raised external funds, and we've been able to scale through to where we are today. So capital, I wouldn't say just, I mean, you have to grow gradually. You keep growing exponentially, from one customer to two to five to 10 to 50. Then all the money you get, you put back into the business.
So I don't go to buy houses and cars because I feel like I've arrived. All the money keeps going back, and I keep expanding until we got to where we are. That's the difference between myself and some of the founders out there.
One of the things is whether they are building companies to raise funds or to impress investors. Also, are they building communities based on what they read in the book? Many of them are not passionate about it. They wanted to solve all the problems. But for me, I think what matters most is the problem we are trying to solve and the solutions we are building. That's how I've been able to navigate through the educational sector. I think we have different facets. So for me, I like to set purpose-driven goals. So what I would like to say is, where do we want to be in the next five years? Do we want to be part of the global workforce? Do we want to be the engine? If we say this is what we want to be, then we have to invest in what is necessary.
For instance, one key area is technology, two is care, and three is facilities and equipment. So because of what I want to achieve, it will be much easier for me to know what I want to do. I'm not so good in terms of government and policies, but most of the things I do are based on the goal. So I spend a lot of time figuring out what I want to achieve, and then everything I build alongside it is towards that goal.
So for me, I see Nigeria as a land of opportunities. I'm from Enugu, and one of the things I've gained from coming from Enugu is that it is one place where most of the brilliant talents, in terms of learning and education, are actually from. Most of the engineering is actually from Enugu. So, because of that I go back to where I'm from to be able to pick the right people and still bring them to Lagos to ensure that they build a product that transforms the system. So if we identify that we need to be the global supply of talent, I think we need to start gradually and start investing critically in the environment. This is because learning is not just about technology. All environments need to be extremely safe and extremely sane. Then, when you use technology as support, it makes it a lot easier for people to learn.
The Federal Government, in its 2024 budget, earmarked N2.1 trillion for the education sector. What does this portend for the sector?
The problem I have is not about the proposed N2.5 trillion. I know that because of the way things are, corruption is everywhere. So if the proposed amount is spent the way it's being meant to be spent, I believe that there will be a lot of transformation.
But I can say that maybe not even N50 or 400 billion will be truly spent for what it is. So because of that, you can see that there's almost no change that will happen in this space.
What should we expect from Educare next year?
One of the key things that we are trying to do now is to be able to change the way learning is done. Learning and assessment are done first, and we're investing a lot in global assessment. Right now, we are standardising JAMB and WAEC practices. We've hired a lot of Ph.Ds trying to see how they can use their hands to explain these concepts and solve these questions. We're investing in JAMB, WAEC and all these past questions.
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In terms of school assessment, we want schools to assess the children, not the teachers. And we also want states to assess the schools. So we're investing a lot in these learning tools. We also have the Educare Business Tool, which is one of our most popular tools right now. We have the best HR System and the best Finance System.
Lastly, how are you collaborating with the media to ensure the stakeholders in the Nigerian education sector know more about your solutions?
So many businesses are adopting what we have. And then for the school products, we are also working hard so that schools can have the best tools that they need to succeed. Part of the key things we want to start investing in next year is media.
We've never really paid attention to the media; we've been focused on building what we needed to do. But our team has already listed it as part of our key investments. We need to show what we've spent the last eight years building and growing.
So right now, I think it's important that more people know what we are doing in this space. We are the most popular anyway, with zero ads. I think at this point, we need to do more things and engage with the media to see how we can increase our brand reputation.
