Edtech has continued to gain popularity in Africa, with more startups securing investments to expand online education. Covid pandemic, which has continued to limit in-person activities, accelerated the use of digital platforms for education since 2020. By 2026, the market is estimated to be worth $202 billion.

As such, Africa has seen an uptick in the number of startups offering online classes. Like others, the continent has also witnessed growing investors’ interest.

The Estonian Business Angels Network EstBAN has led a €200,000 funding round in Mentornaut, an online tuition platform. The program will debut in Kenya with the goal of increasing access to tailored education.

Mentornaut has a number of investors, including Superangel, United Angels VC, and a number of EdTech advocates, including Bolt co-founder Martin Villig, IT visionary Linnar Viik, and Clanbeat co-founder Kadri Tuisk.

Mentornaut is working on an online learning network that will connect K-12 kids with a large number of accredited private tutors in their local education systems to assist students bridge knowledge gaps and achieve their full potential in school. It was founded in 2020, at the peak of the pandemic by Markus Meresma and Gregor Mändma, when about 1.5 billion children around were forced to learn remotely.

“Superangel invests in forward-thinking entrepreneurs who are working to make the world a better place.” Mentornaut’s vision of local educational standards becoming empowered is inspiring.

“Personalised education for African children is still largely unaddressed, but it is critical to the development of better economies and societies,” said Veljo Otsason, a co – founder at Superangel and also an early investor with tech startups such as Bolt, Veriff, Starship, and Monese.

Parents are becoming more amenable to private tutoring to help their children overcome learning gaps as distance and remote learning become more widespread around the world.

Mentornaut has seen 2,500 private courses booked on its website since its launch in Estonia last year. Mentornaut distinguishes out by delivering a full service – from bookings to payments – and is praised by its many users.

“Thanks to our vast range of private teachers, we’ve seen a lot of positive feedback from our clients who have rediscovered the fun in learning,” Meresma added.

In the first few hours after the company opened in Kenya, tutor onboarding resulted in more than 120 sign-up requests. The average pupil-to-teacher ratio in African elementary schools is 42:1, necessitating the need of private additional tuition.

Mentornaut takes a proactive approach to expanding its tutoring pool, bringing on students, schoolteachers, and experienced private tutors to broaden the pool and make individualized learning more accessible to more individuals.

The fresh funds will be utilized to improve the platform’s automation in order to speed tailored education for parents, children, and private tutors throughout Africa and Eastern Europe.

The company’s long-term goal is to develop an adaptive learning system that will help shape the establishment of individualized learning paths and assist studies in schools.

As the drum begins to roll for the upcoming 2023 election, many people are already warming up to join politics and participate in the electoral battle to take over a seat of governance or to join the governance of different political cadres; be it local, state or at federal level of the government.

It’s obvious that some electorate don’t believe in the ideologies of the existing political parties while other who used to be the party members of the existing political bigwigs no longer want to be identified with those parties due to political rivalries or change in political perceptions and ideologies hence the need for some people to form and create their own political parties where they will create fresh ideologies and policies and reorganize themselves, canvass and campaign for votes, go into the election field with grin teeth and battle for different seats of governance in the country.

This piece will be of immense help to aspiring political party leaders and those nurturing the ambition of forming and registering a political party as it will summarize the steps of registering a political party in Nigeria in order for the party to be accorded with legal status and ready to be identified by the electoral umpire (INEC).

Thus, any citizen of Nigeria who is of age have the right to join or form a political party as it is every citizen’s constitutional right as provided in section 40 of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to join any interest group of his or her choice, form an interest or political  group or register a political party to field candidates and contest elections for any political seat in Nigeria starting from the seat of the councilorship which is currently the least political seat in Nigeria to the presidential seat which is zenith of the political seats in existence in governance.

It is pertinent to be pointed out that every social or interest group which tend to campaign and contest for election in Nigeria must first register with the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) if not that group won’t be accorded with the legal status to be called a political party and won’t be legally fit and proper to field candidates to contest for electoral seats.

As businesses, companies, churches, schools, NGOs etc are expected to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in order to be accorded the legal status at law, social, political or interest groups that wish to field candidates and contest for election are expected to register with the electoral umpire called Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headed by the chairman in order to obtain the legal status to be regarded as a political party then can be legally fit and proper to be accorded with such status.

The first step in registering a political party in Nigeria is that the group wanting to be registered as a political party must first pick a name for the party; a distinct name and acronym and a distinct symbol and logo for the party. It must not be similar to a party already existing in Nigeria if not INEC will be forced not to register such a party inorder not to breed confusion.

The next step for registering a political party in Nigeria is the payment of the INEC administrative fee of One Million Naira (N1,000,000). This fee is non-refundable, even if you change your mind about carrying on with the party, INEC is not obligated to refund you this administrative fee paid by you.

After the payment of the administrative fee, you are issued with a form called FORM PAI. You are expected to fill this form and return it to the INEC within 30 working days. You are to submit 50 copies of this completed  form, 50 copies of the proposed party constitution and 50 copies of the proposed party manifestos. These documents are to be submitted fully endorsed by the chairman and secretary of the proposed party and their full contact details.

Please note that if all the necessary documents are not submitted to the INEC within 30 working days INEC will see it that you are not ready yet or no longer interested in registering the political and they will terminate the application for the registration and whenever you are ready to carry on with the application for the party registration you will be expected to pay a fresh One million naira (N1,000,000) non-refundable administrative fee.

The next step is that INEC will verify every document submitted for the application for registration. If INEC is satisfied that everything is checked out they will register the political party and a certificate of registration will be issued.

INEC also has the power to deny registering any party if they feel that all requirements have not been satisfied. When they refuse to register a party, they are obligated to notify the applicants their reason(s) for the refusal to register the party and the proposed political party may rectify the defects with INEC within 30 working days.

Caveat; this is just a summary of the steps to be taken in registering a political party in Nigeria. The writer is not ignorant of the fact that it may not be this simple but this piece is just here to guide you and you are always expected to consult a lawyer. If you don’t have any lawyer, you can always consult the writer who is a renowned lawyer and a legal consultant.