The Challenge of a Nation
In Fall 2019 Semester, above 18.2 million students enrolled in U.S. post secondary educational systems. When you add the Spring and Summer of that year, you could be hitting close to 25 million students. In Nigeria, in 2019, two million applied for post secondary education but only about 613,000 enrolled due to mainly limited space; Nigeria has capacity for 600,000 students in our post secondary schools. The U.S. has a population of 328 million, Nigeria has 200 million.
If you run the numbers, you will see the massive gap: A 328 million-nation sends 25 million to post-secondary schools; another of 200 million people does only 613,000! Yet, we do read those – “Africa will leapfrog the West”, “It’s our century”, etc – because we are making mobile apps. But in reality, close to one million students stay home because Nigeria does not have space for them, even when they have passed the entrance exam and meet other requirements. Certainly, online education which removes the challenge of space should be considered as part of the future to fix the paralysis.
Nigeria needs to fix this challenge. It is an unfortunate career ceiling on the millions of our young people. Do not tell me there are no jobs for graduates upon graduation. Sure, that is unfortunate but the core reason for going to school is not to find jobs, but to liberate the mind. We need to make space available!
Across all the educational institutions in Nigeria, two-thirds of about two million Nigerian candidates who applied for tertiary education in 2019 were not admitted, according to the JAMB.
Data from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board shows that this is not because they did not pass, but because there is not enough room for all of them.
While about two million students applied for the Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Examinations and Direct Entry, the country’s institutions had a target of 600,000, but they ended up admitting 612,557 as of June.
The admission data released by JAMB shows that the nation’s universities admitted a total of 444,947 students; polytechnics and monotechnics, 96,423; colleges of education 69,810; and innovation enterprise institutions, 1,377.
Meanwhile, of the two million students who applied, a little above 1.7 million scored 140 and above, the cutoff.
Pollstalker: The Essential Services you Need in a Digital Product
Even some software and digital companies had business limitations in this pandemic period. We see how the shared business model or the uberisation business model was hardly hit. That happened because some digital companies are partly digital and partly offline in operation.
So, while the digital component is usually the software technology, the offline component is usually the economic agents that need to come together physically for business to take place.
This was the problem Codecitty also faced in this pandemic disruption. The start-up was testing a shared economy business model idea when the pandemic came to disrupt the fabric of the idea. According to one of the co-founders, “What we needed to do was to pivot and innovate by leveraging digital tools.”
As the World Economic Forum highlighted remote working as one of the business trends that a sustainable model can be built on, a business model that will run remotely must completely be a digital business. So, Codecitty pivoted to remote work policy and developed a digital platform business called Pollstaker.
This analysis is about how this start-up innovated with pollstaker in order to adopt the remote work policy that will cut the cost of operation for the business. We shall analyse how the pollstaker digital platform works and how it can benefit you.
Let’s get started.
The Value Proposition of Pollstaker Business Model
The platform was developed with this in mind; a business can run fully digital without a physical contact with the target market and still be profitable. So, the platform value proposition is to use this digital platform to solve problems that are associated with education, unemployment and online shopping directory.
With these value propositions, the team working on the business can maintain the platform from different regions of the world remotely but with collaborations.
The Offerings of Pollstaker Business Model
Tech or digital business business models thrive on the freemium model as a marketing strategy. That is how Linkedin, Google, Youtube, Facebook etc operate. But, from the business perspective, Freemium is not free but a means to an end, the end is to generate revenue.
The offerings of the Pollstaker platform are collectively called “Pollsuit”. A suit where you can access three key offerings; education offering, tech job offering and lowest product search directory.
- Educational offering:
This platform is a community of people that aspire to study in other countries. The market targets are always in search for scholarship, fellowship and grant information to further their education in degree level, masters level and Phd level.
So, the platform provides free and credible information to these target markets. Though, international travel has been restricted but this supports remote working.
- Online Shopping Offering:
This section of the platform is a product online directory which makes it from a business online directory. Lowest price product can only be found in this section. The offering is to list products that have the lowest price so that shoppers can always go there to search for the product with the lowest price in a city and the shop that sells it.
Retail stores, malls and supermarkets can list their products on this platform for people to search and make purchases.
It is a search engine for products with lowest prices in major cities of the world.
- Tech Job Offering:
Many employees have lost their job and sources of livelihood. While there is social distancing, there are certain skills that can make you employable, the digital skill. So, Pollstalker jobs portal is a niche specific job portal for just tech and digital jobs.
The platform is updated with credible tech, software and digital skill job vacancies across the world. The platform also helps to recruit for businesses that want the best brains on their tech team.
Visit the platform to explore and benefit from the great value of the offerings.
Pollstalker is one of the products of Codecitty. Codecitty is a software/digital company that provides B2B and B2C software solution services. This period ,this startup is committed in pivoting businesses from brick and mortar operations to digital operations through their mobile application development, website development and digital marketing services.
To help others, the startup demonstrated by helping itself to pivot into a fully digital company that can support remote working policy. The start-up has applied the same strategy to help other businesses transition from brick and mortar to online and digital businesses.
Happy Father’s Day
It is certainly the top job for any man. A job description that requires 24/7 commitment: to raise little angels to become men and women who serve communities with honor, decency and values. Yes, a big call to mission. I want to wish all children, fathers and mothers (you cannot miss them, I will call in sick on this job without Ifeoma) a Happy Father’s Day. More great days ahead in wisdom, wealth and good health.
Portfolio Company Beeptool Completes Test of Integrated Satellite & TV Whitespace Wi-Fi Hotspot
In FUT Owerri, I ran a personal campus newsmagazine – FUTO Bubbles. I served as the editor-in-chief and publisher, and enjoyed the privilege of interviewing my dean and HOD. I also ran for office and became a Director of Research. That one yielded a campus radio station that served the university and the whole of neighbouring communities. Our iconic Director of Socials Osita Njokubi put on a show, managing the station: lovebirds’ ”happy birthday” filled the air, students running shifts, up to date campus news, etc; it was a moment.
Then,one afternoon, I got a summon. It was the Vice Chancellor: Ekekwe, General Sani Abacha had requested that the radio station be taken down. His fear? We could take over the government from Owerri! Of course, we remain grateful that Abacha gave us an option; many were not as lucky.
Ladies and gentlemen, building things is a way of life. We can build up Nigeria. Portfolio company Beeptool under the leadership of John Enoh has completed the test of Integrated Satellite & TV Whitespace Wi-Fi Hotspot. Yes, we can deliver broadband services by taking advantage of “space” between TV signals. Simply, provided there is a TV signal in that place, you get the internet. It was a lot of engineering leadership.
Good People, your village can have good internet. Your city can have a better internet. What can we do together – schools, governments, churches, offices, mosques, homes, hubs, etc? This is email to contact.