As Africa’s largest digital content aggregator, we have made remarkable strides in Nigeria since launching into the region last year. In a recent interview with Business Day, Doyin Shonubi, Sales Manager of West Africa, shared insights into how we have stepped up our investments in the region in response to the growing market. She also revealed our exciting plans to promote literacy in West Africa through digital libraries.
The digital learning space today is awash with several edtech products. Tell us about Snapplify; is it just another solution out there?
Snapplify is well-established in the market as a leading pan-African edtech solution and we are continually innovating to respond to market needs.
Snapplify is not just another ‘solution’. Previously, educational institutions ended up having to make use of separate tools to offer digital content and the platform with which to use this content – Snapplify offers a holistic interconnected digital education ecosystem that better supports students and educators. This includes robust, mature reading technology, content from local publishers in local languages, secure user and identity management, seamless integration with over 600 digital education tools and bulk user account creation technology enabling us to create tens of thousands of user accounts per day for large-scale institution rollouts.
Following the pandemic (when there was broad adoption of edtech solutions), many institutions began asking if their edtech solutions are still serving them, and what we are seeing is that the businesses doing well are those, like Snapplify, who are agile and can adapt to market needs – not just to react to these needs, but to predict them.
What has the adoption of Snapplify been like since its inception in South Africa? Snapplify reaches more than 1 million users in the education space.
Thousands of schools, colleges and universities across Africa use Snapplify every day to teach, learn, and access educational content. Snapplify is the digital content partner on some of the widest-reaching digital interventions on the continent in both the public and the private sectors. We are also the home of the largest community of teachers in Africa, working to empower, inspire, and uplift 100 000 teachers through community platforms, a resource marketplace, and careers portal.
You recently launched in Nigeria; tell us what informed your decision to provide services to the Nigerian market? What does the future hold for Nigeria and the West Africa region in general?
Snapplify’s SaaS products are accessible worldwide, with hundreds of West African schools already registered for Snapplify Engage. With a focus on increasing access to education, we have chosen to increase investment in the region in order to better serve schools in need. Our decision to expand comes in response to a growing market need which Nigerian schools are actively addressing. By establishing a local team, we are able to more effectively support educators and students while also strengthening relationships with local players who have partnered with us to distribute local curriculum-based content on our platform. We collaborate closely with local stakeholders to foster growth and support for our partners and early adopter schools.
How will you describe the growth of edtech solutions in Nigeria and Africa since Snapplify’s launch in 2012?
Recent years have seen significant growth in edtech solutions in Nigeria. The increased adoption of digital technologies (such as mobile devices and affordable internet), combined with the need to improve access to quality education, have presented a significant opportunity for edtech startups to reach a large audience in Nigeria.
In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the dire need for hybrid/remote education and accelerated the adoption of edtech solutions in Nigeria further.
What kills interest in good technologies like yours is pricing. How affordable are your services?
Snapplify’s award-winning Engage e-learning platform is accessible on a freemium model, designed to lower barriers to entry, equip schools for digital learning, and grow with them. This means that our tools are built to suit any budget; as you grow, so does the offering. Even if schools do not have budget available, starting with Engage requires no license fee, so there’s nothing standing in the way of an institution getting started. As an institution or school scales there is an even greater accessibility to solutions. With the option to upgrade to EngageThousands of schools, colleges and universities across Africa use Snapplify every day to teach, learn, and access educational content.
Snapplify is the digital content partner on some of the widest-reaching digital interventions on the continent in both the public and the private sectors. We are also the home of the largest community of teachers in Africa, working to empower, inspire, and uplift 100 000 teachers through community platforms, a resource marketplace, and careers portal. Thousands of schools, colleges and universities across Africa use Snapplify every day to teach, learn, and access educational content. Snapplify is the digital content partner on some of the widest-reaching digital interventions on the continent in both the public and the private sectors.
We are also the home of the largest community of teachers in Africa, working to empower, inspire, and uplift 100 000 teachers through community platforms, a resource marketplace, and careers portal.
You recently launched in Nigeria; tell us what informed your decision to provide services to the Nigerian market? What does the future hold for Nigeria and the West Africa region in general?
Snapplify’s SaaS products are accessible worldwide, with hundreds of West African schools already registered for Snapplify Engage. With a focus on increasing access to education, we have chosen to increase investment in the region in order to better serve schools in need. Our decision to expand comes in response to a growing market need which Nigerian schools are actively addressing. By establishing a local team, we are able to more effectively support educators and students while also strengthening relationships with local players who have partnered with us to distribute local curriculum-based content on our platform. We collaborate closely with local stakeholders to foster growth and support for our partners and early adopter schools.
How will you describe the growth of edtech solutions in Nigeria and Africa since Snapplify’s launch in 2012?
Recent years have seen significant growth in edtech solutions in Nigeria. The increased adoption of digital technologies (such as mobile devices and affordable internet), combined with the need to improve access to quality education, have presented a significant opportunity for edtech startups to reach a large audience in Nigeria.
In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the dire need for hybrid/remote education and
accelerated the adoption of edtech solutions in Nigeria further.
What kills interest in good technologies like yours is pricing. How affordable are your services?
Snapplify’s award-winning Engage e-learning platform is accessible on a freemium model, designed to lower barriers to entry, equip schools for digital learning, and grow with them. This means that our tools are built to suit any budget; as you grow, so does the offering. Even if schools do not have budget available, starting with Engage requires no license fee, so there’s nothing standing in the way of an institution getting started. As an institution or school scales there is an even greater accessibility to solutions. With the option to upgrade to Engage Professional or Engage Enterprise, added benefits, like gaining access to exclusive procurement discounts, advanced administration tools and integrations, and data analytics become available.
How has Snapplify’s solution been an enabler in helping the Nigerian education sector and institutions achieve their purpose?
At this point, many schools are in the early stages of exploring digital migration, with a primary focus on utilizing the Engage library tool. By implementing an ‘evaluation’ approach, it allows for more flexibility to experiment and try new things prior to committing; ultimately making the attainment of digital maturity a smoother process with less risk involved. With access to free local and international content, we are able to support this exploration and transition.
How are you responding to emerging competition in edtech innovations on the continent? Is this an issue for you at all?
Snapplify’s solutions stand out as truly unique in the market. While other organizations may offer similar services, only Snapplify provides access to a complete range of digital educational tools and resources, all in one convenient location. Our focus is on creating a comprehensive digital ecosystem that includes everything from e-books and digital libraries to cloud-based services for our partners.
At the heart of our offering is a commitment to developing cutting-edge digital educational tools that help students to learn and grow. Our marketplace features both physical and digital educational products and services, and we work closely with global leaders such as Google Education to co-market and collaborate on key projects.
What truly sets us apart is our deep understanding of the unique challenges facing African schools today. Our solutions are tailor-made to reduce data and connectivity requirements, making them far more accessible and practical for students and teachers alike. We are also proud to collaborate with local stakeholders to offer books in students’ home languages, ensuring that our solutions meet the national curricula requirements of new territories as we continue to expand.
How can the Nigerian government and other stakeholders leverage edtech innovation for grooming the next generation of leaders?
At Snapplify, we firmly believe that digital technology is not just the future, but also the present of education.
Our aim is to help schools develop a robust digital learning ecosystem that caters to the needs of both teachers and students. We provide curriculum-aligned educational content and innovative technology that give schools full confidence and support in achieving e-learning excellence. This, however, requires a solid infrastructure, and the government’s investment in building necessary digital facilities and providing affordable edtech devices will make it easier for students and educators to access online learning resources.
By collaborating with Snapplify, governments and stakeholders can establish free and affordable personalized learning platforms via our freemium model that caters to different educational levels, including curriculum-aligned content for students and professional development courses for teachers. Through our digital libraries, we are promoting digital literacy as an essential component of the Nigerian curriculum.
Snapplify is the largest aggregator of digital content in Africa; what plan does your company have for the Nigeria education sector in terms of partnership?
Snapplify is always looking for partnerships with key stakeholders who are aligned with our mission to increase access to education. Our existing partnerships, across the regions we operate in, span government education departments, publishers, booksellers, and other education businesses. We are actively pursuing these partnerships in Nigeria too.
What have been your greatest challenges doing edtech business in Africa and what are the possible solutions?
Of course, there is limited funding for startups but is not the main barrier. There is no single barrier that stands out. Rather, the issue we need to look at is the maturity of the whole ecosystem. We needmature entrepreneurs; we need the skills on the ground for operational execution; we need a commercial environment that is supported by the infrastructure, from connectivity to transactional facilities. The environment needs to mature, to make it more investable. Covid proved the relevance of and need for technology, but it also highlighted the many hurdles to widespread application. Partnering with those who fill the gaps rather than trying to build all your own solutions and being able to present a broader solution to the market, is compelling. Understanding the ecosystem and adapting your business and revenue model to how your customers are likely to buy ensures that you get to walk a far longer road with your customers. Edtech has many challenges, understand your part in the solution and partner with complementary businesses. That is something Snapplify is really good at.
What plans are being put in place to create more opportunities for the development of
talents in Nigeria and West Africa?
As a part of Snapplify, we have additional platforms that cater exclusively to teachers. Our
Teacha! Inspire and Teacha! Resources platforms offer various resources to help educators stay informed and excel in their profession. These consist of on-demand courses relevant to local teachers, live webinars to help stay updated on the latest teaching strategies and trends, and teacher communities that provide a platform to connect with local like minded professionals and share best practices and ideas. Our motto of Teach. Learn. Inspire. embodies our commitment to inspire and help teachers develop and grow in their careers, while also inspiring the next generation of learners.
Where do you see your operation in Nigeria in the next 5 years? How bright or otherwise is it?
In a bid to promote quality education across Africa, Snapplify has set a strategic focus on the whole African continent. We aim to become a major player in the digital edtech industry within the next five years, working closely with the government, teachers, learners, and other players in the sector to create robust and sustainable ecosystems. Our goal is to enable all African learners to have access to the very best digital education tools, maximizing their potential and positioning them as global leaders.
Snapplify is committed to supporting others and creating sustainable change, globally, through collaboration and innovation.
Snapplify is trusted across the education industry. Register for Snapplify Engage for free or email [email protected] to chat about your specific needs and how we can work together.
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Established in 2001, is a daily business newspaper based in Lagos. It is the only Nigerian newspaper with a bureau in Accra, Ghana. It has both daily and Sunday titles. It circulates in Nigeria and Ghana. BusinessDay Media Ltd is the leading medium for up-to-date news and insightful analysis of business, policy, and the economy in Nigeria. A critical decision-making tool for investors and managers. It provides unbiased news and informed analysis on politics, governance, social and economic trends. The newspaper has produced many award-winning journalists.
