Makaranta

I attended a privileged secondary school in West Africa and at the end of every academic year, our halls were lined with discarded textbooks, stationery and school uniforms. We were privileged kids that did not understand the value of textbooks. However, despite our privileges, we were still underprepared for the real world.

Makaranta is a platform that provides students with educational material and content. Textbooks and school uniforms are costs that prevent underprivileged children from attending school. When the child is fortunate enough to attend school, the education does not prepare them adequately for the future.

Makaranta hopes to solve these problems by not only providing a marketplace for the sale and resale of educational material but also provide children with relevant educational content.

This solution would make education more affordable and provide students with the knowledge needed to be an active participant in the new globally interconnected world. 

Makaranta is trying to solve the educational pipeline issues in Africa. Currently, there is no marketplace for the sale and resale of educational resources (such as textbooks) and educational content. 

It is very difficult to gather information on the number of people affected by the high costs of educational material because no one has gathered that information. However, articles have been written about how schools inflate the costs of textbooks to further extort parents. Additionally, as someone who has gone through the educational system, I can attest to the difficulties that parents face when shopping for school supplies.   

Parents, without any alternative, are forced to either buy the expensive textbooks, search endlessly in open markets for used textbooks or withdraw their children, especially their daughters, from school. Ironically, irrespective of cost, the education that most African children receive does not provide them with relevant skills. 

This problem disproportionally affects underprivileged and socio-economically disadvantaged communities. In the case where a parent is only able to afford the education for one child, the girl child is often withdrawn from school. 

Makaranta hopes to solve those problems by providing an online marketplace for the sale and resale of educational materials, resources, and content. 

Makaranta is a simple solution to some of the problems in education in Africa.

At the start of every school year, schools can buy year-long access educational content on topics such as mental health, sex education, and media literacy from Makaranta. Once a school has paid, all the students in the school have access to that content. Additionally, students can also buy their necessary school supplies (new or used) and have them delivered to their dormitory. This is particularly relevant to students that live in a different state or country from their school. Also, students will be able to find all their school supplies on the website throughout the school year.

At the end of every academic year, we attend different tertiary, secondary, and primary schools where students are able to sell your used textbooks, school uniforms, and tools (such as backpacks, sandals), etc to us. This would then provide the used items inventory for the next school year. The schools that paid for educational content would also be able to use the content throughout the summer to reinforce the education learned during the academic year. 

My solution primarily serves children, parents, and academic institutions. Our focus is particularly on students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds irrespective of age.

I understand this demographic because I was one of them. I grow up in Nigeria and understand the importance of girl child education. I have 4 sisters and one brother. We consistently started school late because we could never afford to start on time. I have also spoken to my friends from other African countries such as Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda and they have also faced similar challenges. However, there has not been a successful initiative to make education more affordable on a large scale. 

Additionally, I have spoken to educational officials in my alma mater (Loyola Jesuit College) who are thrilled about the solution.

My solution addresses the needs of children and parents by not only making schooling more affordable but also providing them with a more relevant education.

1. Makaranta makes costs of school supplies more affordable by providing a secondary marketplace. Often, when underprivileged families have the funds to only educate one child, the girl child is forced to stay at home. By making education more affordable, we free up resources that can be put towards educating the girl child. 

2. Makaranta educates students with more relevant information by providing schools with educational content. The content focus on topics such as sex education, gender studies, and mental health. In doing so, we hope to compact deeply held cultural beliefs that hamper girl child education. 

Firstly, Makaranta uses the resell and direct to consumer business model to provide affordable textbooks, school uniforms, and other educational materials to children across the socio-economic spectrum.

Due to the lack of proper house addressing in Nigeria, it is difficult to deliver packages directly to consumers' homes. Additionally, this difficulty is worsened when consumers live in remote or isolated communities. Delivery and pick up at schools solves this issue by focusing our efforts on delivering to a select number of locations. Also, this delivery model appeals to families that live in different states/countries from the locations of their schools. Competitors in this space, such as Jumia and Jigi, either do not sell used textbooks (Jumia) or require the user to pick up the item (Jigi). Also, none of those websites focus on primarily educationally tools and services. So, there is a space ripe for disruption.

Secondly, Makaranta also sells educational content, on topics such as sex education, gender studies, media literacy, and creative problem solving, directly to schools. From talking to school administrators, there is a need for such content, but no funding or teachers available to support the initiative. Makaranta solves this problem by providing easy to understand educational content to schools at an affordable price.

Students would become familiar with Makaranta through educational content, building brand trust, and awareness. This would result in students willing to use the site as a solution for all their educational needs such as buying textbooks and stationery. 

In the minimum viable product, Makaranta will be using a simple website for the online marketplace and educational video content. The website would be very mobile-friendly since we know that our target demographic is very mobile-oriented. This would allow us to provide value to our consumers as quickly as possible. Based on the feedback that we get, we will begin to improve the experience and offerings.

As the website begins to scale, we plan to add a mobile application that makes use of artificial intelligence to further solve some other educational problems. Some of these problems include more affordable special needs testing, automated test grading, and automated academic counseling based on students' interests. However, those are long term goals and we are currently focused on the online marketplace and educational content.

This solution is already being used in multiple parts of the world. The two aspects of Makaranta are the online marketplace and the educational content.

In the US, there are multiple locations to buy used textbooks and school supplies such as Amazon, Walmart, and Target. There is no website like that in Nigeria. Additionally, I have spoken to people from other African countries such as Rwanda, Senegal, and Zimbabwe and they also do not have a central location for school supplies. Also, there is a demand for second-hand books as suggested by this article. However, that demand has not been captured in an online website. Makaranta is the online marketplace that solves that problem.

As for the educational content solution, we have seen such models in Khan Academy. However, most of those videos focus on STEM topics. As important as those fields of study are, we need to prepare kids with a MESH education to properly respond to the growing needs of this new globally interconnected world. These topics would be covered in the educational content portion. 

Activities: Makaranta's media portion provides relevant educational content on topics such as sex education, women's studies, mental health, etc. While Makaranta's marketplace gathers new and used textbooks and other educational materials.

Output: Students watch Makaranta's educational content, become familiar with the website and begin to use it for school shopping.

Short Term Outcomes: The students gain knowledge into relevant and impactful issues. Also, parents are able to save money on education because they have been provided with more affordable alternatives to school supplies.

Long Term Outcomes: radically transformed knowledge amongst African children because they were exposed topics that require critical thinking and creative problem-solving. Also, an increase in the number of children, especially young girls, that are attending schools because there were alternatives to expensive books and school supplies.

We are currently in the development phase and are building out the website. So, we have not signed up our first users. However, I have spoken to school administrators from my alma mater, Loyola Jesuit College, who are very enthusiastic about our product. Additionally, my alma mater is very prominent. So, If I am able to sign them up for Makaranta, It will be easier to get other schools onboard.

Within the first year, we are targeting our first ten schools and their students. These schools will all be located in Abuja.

In 5 years, we hope to be available to all the schools and students in West and East Africa. 

Within the next year, we plan to have fully built our website and signed up at least ten schools within Abuja. We also plan to have built out our delivery model and pipeline.

The game plan is to first sign up my alma mater (Loyola Jesuit College). My former secondary school is very prominent and having them as a client would be the leverage to get other schools signed up.

With more schools signed up for educational content, students would begin to visit the site. Students will then discover that they can buy their school supplies from Makaranta. During this time, we will iterate and improve on our solution. We will also build brand trust and awareness.

If this model is successful, we will replicate it in other states in Nigeria and other countries across West and East Africa. We will continually improve the process based on feedback.

We will scale not only our marketplace but also our media portion. Eventually, we hope to have our media portion in different languages and multiple topics. 

Culturally, online businesses have not built radical trust with their users. With websites such a Jumia, users often fear that they will not get what they ordered for and will not be able to get a refund.

Financially, we require funding to scale this solution.

Technologically, some people do not have access to a stable internet. Therefore, they will not be able to use the website. 

To solve the cultural issue, Makaranta will build radical brand trust by focusing on user experience. By selling primarily school supplies, we are able to ensure better quality control. Secondly, we will invest heavily in customer service/feedback to makes sure that we turn every customer into an ambassador. We want the experience of every Makaranta user to be so good that they become our advocates.

To solve the financial issue, we will iterate through our solutions. Instead of investing heavily in business models that are not profitable, we will focus on generating revenue as early as possible. If we notice that a business model/approach is unprofitable, we will begin to rework that model.  

Finally, to solve the technological issue, we will partner with churches, mosques, libraries, and other communities center with more reliable internet. That way, users have a location where they can reach the website easily.

We did not select Other. 

3 people part time because we do not have the funding to work fulltime.

Makaranta's team consists of Chisom Igwe, Lotachi Igwe, and Chidera Igwe. These are the skillsets that set us to succeed.

Chisom Igwe is a full-time Software Engineer and part-time tutor that lives in the Bay Area. This means that she is not only able to understand the technical requirements to build out this product but is also able to teach the media content. Additionally, due to her location, she has easy access to mentorship from other startup founders.

Lotachi Igwe is in charge of building our inventory and stocking up the online marketplace. She is well connected to students in multiple colleges and universities. This allows us to focus on products that will have the most impact and reach the largest number of people.

Chidera Igwe is in charge of leading our brand awareness and social media effort. She works part-time as a fashion model and understands the importance of an online presence.

These are some items that work in our favor:

1. The family owns a house with an adjacent building that will serve as an office. This means that we would not need to spend money on office space.

2. All girls attended different secondary schools. This means that we are able to reach out to multiple alma maters as some of our first clients.

3. With additional funding, Chiders and Lotachi would learn video editing to develop the media content. 

Makaranta does not currently have any partnerships. 

Our business models have two major customers: institutions of learning (such as schools, universities, etc) and families.

We will provide schools with year-long access to relevant educational content that better prepares their students for the demand of this new globally interconnected world. The courses allow the school to provide more relevant knowledge and information to their students without having to either invest heavily in new teachers or disrupt their current curriculum. 

As for the students and their parents, we are not only able to provide them with more affordable alternatives to the expensive textbooks, school uniforms, and school supplies but also have those supplies conveniently shipped to schools. By doing so, we not only save the parents money on educational costs but also make life easier for parents and students by taking out the difficulty in school shopping.

Makaranta will be most useful and impactful to the lives of those who are economically and socially disadvantaged. Some people who will gain highly from Makaranta are parents who cannot afford to send multiple children to school and children in understaffed schools. By using Makaranta, not only will parents save money on educational costs but schools would also provide additional value to their students at a lower cost. 

Our path to financial stability would be through selling goods and services either to institutions (educational content) and families (school supplies). We will do so by purchasing new school supplies in wholesale and selling at the retail cost. We will also generate revenue by selling used school supplies as a more affordable alternative. Finally, we will sell year-long subscriptions to schools that grant their student access to our educational media content.

The focus is on generating revenue as soon as possible. 

Solve can help Makaranta overcome the following challenges:

1. Funding: we need to be able to hire/train workers in certain areas that we are currently lacking. One of those areas would be to train members of the team in video editing to spearhead the media portion of Makaranta. Another would be to pay for some of the logistical items needed to pick up and deliver the school supplies.

2. Culturally, Solve can provide us with the tools needed to better understand our user base and respond to their needs. That way, we are better able to build customer trust and brand loyalty.

3. Lastly, Solve could help us better reach people in technologically under-serviced communities. A major challenge that Makaranta would have is reaching people who lack access to the internet. Hopefully, by collaborating with the Solve community, Makaranta would be able to partner with organizations focused on reaching people who lack stable and reliable internet. 

Makaranta's partnership goal is to advance organizations and institutions that help remove the barriers that prevent children from having access to an education. These barriers could be economic such as cost or social and cultural.

By forming strategic partnerships, Makaranta would be able to try different approaches to solve this difficult problem. By bringing people from different backgrounds and organizations, We hope to be able to test, implement, and supports efforts that make education more accessible. 

Firstly, I would like to partner with organizations in the EDU sector, particularly those focused on improving children's learning and educational outcomes. This way, Makaranta can create educational content that best serves the students. 

Secondly, I would like to partner with organizations that are focused on reaching people who do not have access to the internet. The people who are technologicallyy under-serviced would benefit the most from having access to affordable textbooks. Therefore, partnerships like this could advance both company's goals. 

Lastly, I would like to partner with organizations that help advance women's and young girl's rights in the developing world. Through this partnership, Makaranta would use its media division to help raise awareness to and advance women's cause. 

Makaranta qualifies for the Anden Prize of Innovation in Refugee Inclusion by reducing the costs that hinder the most economically disadvantaged children, particularly girls, from attending school.

Makaranta does so by not only providing a digital secondary market for the sale and resale of new and used school supplies but also educating the general public about the challenges that young women and girls face through a media platform. Makaranta will be most impactful in the lives of socio-economically disadvantaged children such as refugees and orphans. By not only raising awareness about the challenges that people on the economic margins face but also providing more affordable educational alternatives, Makaranta is able to advance educational inclusion both socially and financially. 

Makaranta advances the needs of women and girls in multiple ways.

Firstly, Makaranta reduces the cost of educating a child by providing parents with the option of buying used textbooks, school uniforms, and other school supplies. While growing up, I heard multiple stories of families only being able to afford an education for one child. In situations like this, parents prioritize the male child's education and the girls are forced to stay at home. By reducing the costs that prevent parents from educating multiple children, we free up resources that could be used to educate young girls.

Secondly, through the media division of Makaranta, we would help raise awareness of the injustices that young girls and women face through our gender studies and sex education courses. The courses would cover topics such as gender-based violence, femicide, the African feminist movement, etc. By educating a new generation on the dangers that girls and women face around the continent, we would be able to shape the opinions of future lawmakers and the general public as a whole.

Lastly, in multiple African countries, women are often relegated to the domestic sphere. Young women and girls deserve to see women as business leaders. Makaranta is a company led and founded by a group of sisters. By succeeding, Makaranta will inspire a new generation of young girls to start businesses. 

Makaranta advances the needs of women and girls in multiple ways.

Firstly, Makaranta reduces the cost of educating a child by providing parents with the option of buying used textbooks, school uniforms, and other school supplies. While growing up, I heard multiple stories of families only being able to afford an education for one child. In situations like this, parents prioritize the male child's education and the girls are forced to stay at home. By reducing the costs that prevent parents from educating multiple children, we free up resources that could be used to educate young girls.

Secondly, through the media division of Makaranta, we would help raise awareness of the injustices that young girls and women face through our gender studies and sex education courses. The courses would cover topics such as gender-based violence, femicide, the African feminist movement, etc. By educating a new generation on the dangers that girls and women face around the continent, we would be able to shape the opinions of future lawmakers and the general public as a whole.

Lastly, in multiple African countries, women are often relegated to the domestic sphere. Young women and girls deserve to see women as business leaders. Makaranta is a company led and founded by a group of sisters. By succeeding, Makaranta will inspire a new generation of young girls to start businesses. 

Makaranta qualifies for the Future Planet Capital Prize because it makes use of two existing business models that have been profitable in other countries. Amazon started off by selling books. While Khan academy makes video academic content. Makaranta combines those two aspects to provide a platform that will meet the educational needs of the youngest and fastest-growing continent.

Makaranta will generate revenue by sales to educational institutions and individuals. Therefore, Makaranta already has multiple streams of revenue. Additionally, Makaranta will capitalize on the rise of internet access across Africa.