Osita Oparaugo: GetBundi Education Technology Will Empower African Youths With Digital Skills
Osita Oparaugo, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, GetBundi, an Educational Technology Company dedicated to STEM and Digital Skills learning, in this interview discussed his role in addressing Africa’s youth unemployment by empowering African youths to lead and commercialize innovation. Excerpts:
Can you tell us about your background?
I am a lawyer by profession. I studied law at The University of Buckingham United Kingdom and subsequently called to the Nigerian bar. I have been in the tech space since 2014 from Footprint to Africa (media and Investments Company) to Ogelle, Africa’s first user generated video sharing platform and now GetBundi Education Technology for STEM and Digital Skills.
What motivated and inspired you to establish GetBundi?
Working across Africa as a commercial lawyer supporting foreign direct investment, I noticed the many challenges facing Africa including high unemployment rate among the youths, and at each time I analysed the problems, the answer brings me back to one solution, creating platform for the youths, to understand and appreciate science technology and innovation (STI) studies. An edtech platform that will help the youths acquire and commercialize digital skills.
Acquiring digital skills is crucial for African youths today as it opens opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, and global connectivity in an increasingly digital world.
It enhances their competitiveness and empowers them to contribute to technological advancements and economic growth of the continent.
Can you elaborate on GetBundi’s mission and vision for the future?
GetBundi is an online STEM and Digital Skills education technology platform with over 3,000 hours of qualility STEM and Digital Skills courses.
GetBundi is designed to deliver high-quality, engaging, and accessible Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects for post primary school education and Digital Skill Courses for the youths across Africa.
Our goal is to make quality STEM and Digital Skills learning across Africa accessible to everyone using technology.
The STEM category covers the entire six years of secondary school education, with 6,000 multiple choice questions, 1000 questions for each year and 3 years of revision for competitive examinations like WAEC etc. Quality content created by proficient educationalists using West African syllabus.
Our Digital Skills program is offering courses to African youths aged 18-35 on over twenty (20) digital skill sets like data science, artificial intelligence, web development, motion graphics etc. We target to up-skill 10 million African workforces under our initiative The GetBundi Vision 2034, which aligns with the African Union Agenda 2063.
Our mission with GetBundi is to make quality Digital Skills education for the youths and STEM subjects for post-primary school students available across Africa at a highly subsidized fee, and through GetBundi Education Foundation, to support those who are potentially left behind, especially girls, internally displaced students, disabled and the refugees.
Our vision is to be the go-to platform for STEM and Digital Skills education in Africa.
Being a legal professional and entrepreneur, how do you navigate the legal and regulatory challenges in the countries where your ventures operate, and how does this influence your business strategies?
Being a lawyer has its advantages and, in all honesty, it has helped our businesses in so many ways, especially in terms of regulatory challenges or bureaucratic bottlenecks that exist in many countries across Africa. Most countries have sound policies but fail at the implementation level. It is at this stage that we bring our understanding of the law to bear and insist that the right things are done and that our company is not taken advantage of in any way.
It is honourable to be a lawyer but my media background / network across the continent has contributed immensely to the success of my work. There is hardly any country in Africa where I cannot get things done in terms of media representation, brand adoption and positioning.
Could you share some insights into the revenue models employed by Ogelle, especially in terms of supporting content creators in Africa?
It is good to state first that Ogelle is a dual platform. User generated content (UGC) and subscription video on demand (SVOD). The user generated side of Ogelle makes revenue majorly from ads, product branding and positioning, and market analysis while the subscription video on demand is ads free but subscription based.
SVOD content creators are in the minority, and about 98% of them create content solely to make money while UGC content creators are in the majority and less than 30% of them monetize their content. These grassroot content creators benefit more from Ogelle because of low entry barrier. We are reengineering the platform to include 9 indigenous languages for the SVOD users and it should be back up by the last quarter of 2024.
Ogelle is Africa. Over 40,000 content creators monetized content on Ogelle with millions of views across the world. Talents were discovered, rediscovered, and supported along the way. The other day, I saw a picture of myself with Rema and Crayon when he performed Dumebi at Ogelle studio in 2019 as part of his first public performances. I knew that dude would rule the world.
We are currently creating content across Africa and over 1000 people are involved from script writing to final production.
How do you go about identifying and evaluating new business opportunities?
I evaluate business opportunities differently. Someone has asked me why I am not investing in fintech. I asked him why I should invest in fintech, and his answer was that out of the 7 unicorns in Africa if they are still 7, that about 5 of them are in fintech. I asked him if fintech is Africa’s greatest asset. The answer is no. Africa’s greatest assets are in the number of people, mostly youths and the land. I think entrepreneurs and startups should focus more on core and complementary businesses that are within those spaces, for example, agriculture technology and telemedicine are untapped and present a huge market for any entrepreneur. Look around you, identify where there is still human to human contact and bridge it with technology. This is how I analyse investment opportunities. I am bold in my ideas, I seek collaborations. With every opportunity I get, I network. I ask hard questions. I try to be borderless in evaluating new business opportunities.
Given your background in resources and rural development in Africa, what role do you envision businesses playing in sustainable development on the continent?
Businesses in Africa can play a crucial role in sustainable development by adopting environmentally friendly practices, promoting social responsibility, and contributing to economic growth. This includes investing in areas like renewable energy, supporting local communities especially in education and health care, and adopting sustainable business models to ensure long-term positive impact on the continent. In 2016, my company went out of our way to support the government of Sierra Leone in rebuilding the country after the eradication of Ebola. We saw first-hand the resilient nature of the people and what our contribution at the time meant to them and how it helped them attract investors back into the country. One of the projects we did at the time for the country, an economic documentary is still in use till this day, “I have seen Sierra Leone.”
Balancing your roles as a legal practitioner, founder, and board member of multiple companies can be challenging. How do you manage these demands effectively?
Time management is everything. As a founder, I have learnt to give it all and most importantly to remain focused even when I am misunderstood. This can be very demanding so you must develop a strong time management skill. Once you can manage your time well, you will become more organised, and this leads to increase in productivity. Prioritising roles will help you allocate your time effectively. I take up board membership positions if the objects of the entity whether for profit or non for profit aligns with my ideology.
What are your thoughts on the significance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in business sustainability and its impact on the communities you aim to serve?
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a crucial role in business sustainability by fostering a positive impact on the communities served. It enhances a company’s reputation, builds trust with stakeholders, and contributes to long-term success. CSR initiatives, such as environmental conservation and community development projects, create a more sustainable and ethical business environment, benefiting both the company and the communities involved. Ultimately, businesses that prioritize CSR contribute to a more inclusive and socially responsible global economy. It is sad when I hear that most companies give communities money as part of CRS. Money is good, but, in my opinion, communities across Africa need support with skill-based education, telemedicine and agriculture technology.
Finally, could you outline your long-term visions for your businesses and how they align with your overarching mission to contribute to Africa’s development and growth?
With Ogelle, our long-term vision is to change the ugly narrative about Africa. The strategy is to give every African content creator, big or small, a voice. To enable them to create and share videos in their native languages and customs. By doing so, Africans will tell their stories because whoever that documents first, wins. To change the negative narrative about Africa, we must control the image. “Whoever controls the media; the images; controls the culture.” Allen Ginsberg.
Ogelle is Africa and we will not stop advocating for content creation in indigenous languages until Africans in Africa and Africans in the diaspora unite in telling a unified story about us, the true Africa. This will develop a vibrant and lucrative creative industry for the continent.
GetBundi’s long term strategic goals are clear. First, we identified the challenges why there are significant gaps in digital skills in Africa as inability of African students to understand and appreciate STEM subjects from an early stage due to the continents lack of investment in science education. The biggest challenges facing the youths are the issues of Cost, Access, and Quality is built to mitigate.
Massifying quality STEM subjects for secondary school students and Digital Skill education for the youths across Africa. Empowering African youths to lead and commercialize innovation is what we want to achieve in the long run.
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, where the world of work is changing due to digital advancements, some research works claim that over the next 10 years, 9 out of 10 jobs will require some form of digital skills. Without digital skill sets, African youths will be less competitive in the global market while with our numbers, they should dominate the workspace.
GetBundi Education Technology will empower African youths with various digital skill sets that will help them to navigate the global job market and contribute to the digital transformation of various industries, ultimately playing a key role in shaping the future of Africa’s socio-economic landscape.
