Hello Africa! Top of the week!
Do you think you have seen it all? Experienced everything the use of internet technology has to offer ranging from online shopping to health apps, transport and concierge services, and performance meters? You haven’t; not when young Africans are throwing the ‘usual and expected’ to the winds and dreaming up creative, out-of-this-world methods of ensuring that the internet is exploited and dredged of every resource.
Enter PrepClass.com.ng- listed amongst the top 10 most innovative companies in Africa in 2014 by fastcompany.com; it is an online portal for students preparing for standardized tests in Nigeria such as the JAMB, WAEC, GCE, or NECO. Students pay to take practice tests that prepare them and receive personalized feedback to improve for test day. To be as available as possible, PrepClass has partnered with more than 1,000 cybercafes across Nigeria to give students places with the necessary resources to use the platform.
PrepClass offers quick test taking strategies and targeted examination practice for students and in addition, provides access to personal trained home tutors in Lagos, Nigeria.
Winners of the TechCabal Battlefield 2014 –a Nigerian technology start-up competition- PrepClass received US$20,000 prize money and was listed amongst the 8 Nigerian start-ups to watch in 2015 by techcabal.com. PrepClass has clearly received the nod of the technology community and other ‘techpreneurs’ as a viable and sustainable initiative.
No surprise as their revenue has more than doubled since inception. A partnership with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has not hurt their profile either.
The highlights of the PrepClass methodology includes providing access to a database of home tutors, monitoring the performance of its clients, providing detailed answers to past questions in addition to tips and tricks, personalized practise on specific subjects and topics, mobile friendly for studying-on-the-go and a full refund if a client doesn’t score above 75%- very confident of their teaching/learning apparatus I must say.
Chukwuwezam Obanor is the 21-year old technology aficionado and co-founder behind this ingenious e-learning portal. A graduate of the University of Lagos with a degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Chukwuwezam also undertook a course in Entrepreneurship and Mobile Apps Development at MIT AITI.
Certified in Google Adwords – Search Advertising and Google Adwords – Display Advertising, he has worked as an online marketing Specialist for Rocket Internet – Jumia Nigeria, as a Google Africa Intern and as a Telecommunications Engineer Intern for Ericsson.
Quite an accomplished young man, I wonder if he had any notion when he co-founded PrepClass with Olumide Ogunlana in July 2013 that it would receive the acclaim it has in only one year of being operational. PrepClass was the overall Africa Winner of the IndiaAfrica business venture competition in June 2014.
Also an Anzisha 2014 finalist, Chukwuwezam says, “I am passionate about technology, about change and innovation but above all I am passionate about people and actively engaging in endeavours and ventures that have huge potentials to create positive ripple effects in society. I always have spare time to discuss and participate in projects that can change the world around me.” [linkedin.com]
PrepClass is creating positive ripple effects in society and holds even greater promise if the projections are anything to go by. Dismal failure rates at the JAMB examination will soon be a thing of the past as Nigerians embrace internet technology, not just for its entertainment or self-promoting value, but for knowledge-acquisition, self-development and life-changing opportunities.
