He is a pioneer and one of his generation’s finest in our nation. He made many people to believe, and created a path for others to believe. His simplicity is legendary and his optimism about Nigeria was unbounded. He is Sim Shagaya, the founder of Konga. Everyone knew that the day he left Konga that something new would happen: no one can cage a tiger, for long. Today, we are learning that Sim has raised $3.1 million including his own money to help West African kids do better in WAEC. But this time, the magic will come via smartphone classes, not necessarily in what happens in the blackboards.

When Sim goes to WAEC, expect As. I personally congratulate him for the tenacity and rising out of the miry clay of Konga. That is how legends are built.

Press release below.

Nigerian edtech learning platform uLesson has closed a $3.1mn seed-level round led by TLcom Capital with participation by Sim Shagaya – the founder, to address infrastructure and learning gaps in Africa’s education sector. Targeting secondary school learners across the West African region, uLesson will launch officially in February 2020, having been in development and beta testing for 12 months. The seed round announced today allows the team to take the product to market in West Africa, before looking to develop educational content and a product for the East African market.

Founded by serial entrepreneur and founder of Nigeria’s Konga, Sim Shagaya, uLesson has built the technology to deploy curriculum-relevant content via smartphones, that allows learners to use the product without concern for internet limitations and costs. uLesson’s mobile offering rests on three pillars: academics, media & technology and curriculum content is delivered via streaming and SD cards. To-date, the Jos-based team has produced over 3,000 richly animated, personalised video learning modules, quizzes and tests that will be available on the uLesson android app, via a subscription model, in Q1 2020.

Low-income families in Africa can spend as much as 40% of household income on expensive schooling and supplemental education, yet the school system across the continent is recording poor academic outcomes. uLesson has been built to address these issues, by leveraging mobile technology to scale access to education and learning, at less than 10% of the cost of a traditional tutor.

The platform allows learners to experience personalised learning, practice tests, region-specific mock tests and assessed performance and progress for students and parents, including rich reporting dashboards for detailed analysis. Tailored towards the WAEC curriculum region (Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia), uLesson’s current content focuses on core subjects of Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology for secondary school students.

Speaking on the investment and upcoming launch of uLesson, CEO Sim Shagaya says, “Education systems across Africa are in crisis and uLesson has been developed to radically shake-up the system and bring better access to high-quality curriculum-relevant educational content to learners across the continent. As our population grows extremely rapidly, the current public and private approach to education investment is chasing a goal that is moving further away. We want to lower the entry point for access to education for young Africans, and technology is the only way this challenge will be met. With this in mind, today is not just an investment in uLesson – it’s an investment in Africa’s future.”

As part of the seed round, Ido Sum and Omobola Johnson, partners in TLcom’s executive team, will join the board alongside former Konga CEO, Shola Adekoya. Speaking on the investment, Ido Sum adds, “In uLesson, we found a company that fitted perfectly with our ethos – an entrepreneur-led startup building affordable, mass-market mobile first solution tackling one of Africa’s largest challenges. In Sim, we have an entrepreneur with an unrivalled track record in building technology products for Africa. His team is building solutions for a massive opportunity, and we strongly believe they are about to make a serious dent in the education market across the continent.”

The global edtech market is projected to reach $341bn and Africa will be a key market fuelling this growth, due to rising smartphone adoption on the continent combined with a high youth population [40% of Africans are under the age of 15]. At present, student to teacher ratios in some parts of Nigeria are 1:70, compared to an average 1:10 in the United States. The dearth of quality teachers, tutors and educational infrastructure on the continent, according to Shagaya, represents a ticking “youth bomb” for the region’s unprecedented demographic growth.

Shagaya concludes, “We work collaboratively, passionately & relentlessly, utilizing every tool available, to deliver high quality affordable education to all Africans. Education, Financial Inclusion & Health need to be tackled on the continent. Remarkable progress in developing financial products has been made. Of the other two, Education represents an immediate opportunity that can be addressed with the tools provided by digital technology (smartphones, wireless internet, data storage and analytics). uLesson believes it has a model that can work in substantially addressing these challenges.”

According to the Nigerian Meteorological Agency(NIMET), Nigeria is naturally endowed with annual daily sunshine which averages 6.25 hours.

The democratization of solar energy as a leading source globally in the provision of clean renewable energy, and technological advances which is bringing the cost of batteries and photovoltaic capabilities, are changing the narrative in provision of electricity, to millions of underserved rural dwellers and in urban Nigeria where power supply is erratic.

The Power Sector Recovery Plan which outlines reforms required to improve the capacity of the national grid in providing reliable electricity for the nation states that the national economy loses $29.3 billion annually due to the paralysis in the electricity sector value chain. There are over 80 million Nigerians in rural communities without access to electricity, and over 40 million in semi urban areas with limited supply from the national grid. Due to our power system fragility, too much generation and too little can cause its collapse.

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) states that Nigerians spend almost $14billion (5 trillion naira) annually on inefficient power generation which is expensive ($0.40/kwh) or 140 naira per kilowatts or more, for power which pollutes the environment with noise and poisonous substances. Rocky Mountain Institute and REA in a study supported by Rockefeller Foundation states that provision of energy access can create  a $9.2 billion(3.2 trillion naira) per annum market opportunity for mini grids and solar home systems, which will lead to cost savings of $4.4billion(1.5 trillion naira) annually for Nigerian homes and businesses.

Taking advantage of the abundance of solar energy in northern Nigeria, Blue Camel Energy, a Kaduna based enterprise in partnership with Sterling Bank which has taken renewable energy as one of its core priorities and Kaduna Business School, delivered ‘’Solar-Fi Hub ‘’ which will provide access to electricity for many to charge their devices, access information via TV and can be used by farmers in rural communities for powering grinding machines and water pumps for irrigation. Blue Camel Energy has established its solar photovoltaic assembly plant which will assemble over 10,000 units of clean, affordable, and reliable solar products annually. Also, there is an academy which will develop energy entrepreneurship capacity development for about 3,000 youths.

Lumos Nigeria was established to provide affordable and sustainable electricity to off grid customers. It decided to adopt the pay as you go business model due to the rapid explosion of mobile payments in Africa and decrease in costs for solar energy. Lumos systems are available in key stores of leading telecommunications operator MTN across the country. Customers who want to access its service sign up by paying a one time commitment fee after which they buy the electricity bundle they can afford. Its technology locks the system remotely and only turns on after payment. After they have consumed the product for five years, its customers gain ownership of the system and Lumos unlocks it to provide them free electricity.

Smarter Grid uses distributed energy to provide affordable renewable electricity to underserved electricity consumers and non-consumers. It finances and provides flexible payment options such as  Pay As You Go and Lease To Own  through payment platforms such as Paga and Angaza. The firm has enabled those at the bottom of the pyramid to purchase its solar products for their productive use. Its product suite consists of smart technological devices which guarantee uninterrupted electricity for business owners, telecommunication operators and banks for their rural agency banking operation. Smarter Grid has installed over 7,000 solar systems and products across the nation since it commenced operations.

Green Village Electricity Projects (GVE) is the leading distributed renewable energy solutions provision company in Africa. Its operations cover design, sales, installation and maintenance of renewable energy solutions for residential, commercial, industrial and rural off grid or underserved communities through commercially sustainable business models in line with it’s clients needs. It distributed its first mini grid , a 6KW project in Egbeke, Rivers State and has since expanded to over 12 locations across the country with 13 mini grids serving about 7,000 household with cumulative energy capacity of 0.65 megawatts. It sells power to communities through a vendor network which purchases its electricity for resell to consumers. The vendors act as its agents and facilitate access to payment in rural areas. Residential consumers pay a one time connection fee of 6,000 naira which cover installation of a prepaid meter and load limiter to track energy consumption in real time. It offers  discounted tariffs for micro small and medium businesses in rural communities.

GVE recently signed an agreement with Abuja Electricity Distribution Company and Wuse Market Traders Association for the development of a 1MW Inter Connected mini grid system at Wuse Market which will provide 24/7 electricity to over 5,000 traders who operate in the market which will ultimately lead to the discard of over 3,000 fossil fuel powered generators. The project will transform Wuse Market to Nigeria’s first 100 percent green and generator free economic cluster. The Wuse Market is part of its Distributed Renewable Energy Commercialization Initiative aimed at impacting over 3.6 million Nigerians with reliable power supply to underserved economic clusters like markets, industries, plazas, estates, and MSME’s, across the country by 2023.

Haven Hill Energy is an Abuja based green energy utility company which builds mini grids in off grid communities and sells electricity to consumers at a rate between 1,000 to 2,000 naira depending on consumption pattern. It has also developed projects in the industrial and commercial space for various clients.

Rensource Energy is a distributed energy company which utilizes advanced lithium batteries integrated with solar energy offered through a mobile subscription model which allows its users to pay for the power consumed and understand how they consume it.

Coldhubs provides solar powered cold stations for 24 hour storage of perishable food items for smallholder farmers, retailers and wholesalers. The cold rooms are strategically located in markets and traders store agricultural products in crates for 150 naira only. It uses educational comics in the three most popular indigenous languages Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba to conduct training sessions for market women and small holder farmers on farm to market strategies and management of post harvest losses. Coldhubs has increased the income of its customers by 50 percent.

Arnegy  was established  to provide sustainable solutions to energy reliability issues across emerging markets. It began operations with provision of affordable solar energy solutions to homes and businesses but has now redesigned to offer Power As A Service with focus on minigrids, commercial and industrial clients who need uninterrupted power. It has doubled down on its efforts in deepening penetration by connecting 20 hospitals to stable electricity with a target of 35,000 businesses within the next five years.

Arnegy offers three models to ensure it is competitive for sustainability; Energy As A Service which offers the consumer access to the facilities while he pays rental fee, lease-to-own model which can be settled within 12-48 months, and an outright ownership acquisition.

These outliers are worthy of commendation, and with support from the Federal Ministry of Power, they can help in setting millions of Nigerians free from the shackles of unreliable power.