Summary:

• CcHub is launching a $15 million accelerator program called The Edtech Fellowship Program that will focus on supporting new tech ideas to improve the education system in Nigeria and Kenya.
• The program will run for three years and cover 72 startups in both countries, aiming to solve the education endemic where many African children do not have access to proper educational facilities, materials, or lack funding.
• The successful startups will receive initial $100,000 funding and support for product development, government relations, portfolio management, communication, and community building.

CcHub, an African innovation centre headquartered in Lagos, is launching a $15 million accelerator program for Nigeria and Kenya edtech startups. According to a report by TechCrunch, the program will run for three years and cover 72 startups in both countries.

Called The Edtech Fellowship Program, it is focused supporting new tech ideas that will improve the educational system.

In Nigeria alone, there are about 20 million children out of school, as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) estimated in October 2022. The number increases to 98 million for just sub-Saharan Africa.

Even those who are in school lack access to proper educational facilities and materials. There is also the issue of lack of funding, out-of-date curriculums, funding, strikes, and more.

Clearly, there is an education endemic and while the first wave of tech startups had focused on financial technology, CcHub is hoping to drive the growth of edtech next.

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Bosun Tijani, the co-founder and CEO of CcHUB, believes that the high regulation in the educational sector and lack of support from the government contributes to the stunted growth of edtech in Africa.

“If we invest intentionally in a very structured edtech inclusive ecosystem of government, teachers, investors, foundations, and even in some cases, the students and their parents, we believe that we can begin to gain a better understanding of how to use technology to improve learning in schools,” Tijani told TechCrunch.

He adds that he hopes the program connects startups with government agencies in charge of education as well as to academic institutions.

While tutorial apps and platforms dominate the edtech space in Nigeria and Kenya, CcHub’s The Edtech Fellowship Program will be looking for solutions that don’t fall under that category. It is looking for innovations that solves problems in all stages of schooling, even up to the skills-to-jobs market.

The accelerator program will be handled in tandem with a 30-person research team testing products from launch to scale. Successful startups will get an initial $100,000 funding along with support ranging from locations, including product development, government relations, pedagogy and learning science, portfolio management, communication, instructional design and community building.

CcHub is also planning to launch a $50 million edtech fund within the next one or two years as seed funding for startups providing education solutions. It is also in talks with Safaricom and MTN on how they can come in to invest and distribute edtech solutions from its portfolio.

“This is also what’s unique about this program. The people backing us are not just saying, ‘this is money, go and invest.’ They are putting serious skin in the game and funding us to be able to raise capital, which is not common in the VC space,” Tijani added.

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