Efiwe Capital

Efiwe Capital is committed to fostering United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) beginning in Nigeria. This is especially for talented, high-potential high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds who cannot afford a university education. The solution is an education fund available to these students to allow them to complete tertiary education without hassle, allowing them to focus on reaching their academic and professional potential. In exchange for paying all university tuition upfront and providing a community of highly motivated peers and support networks, Efiwe Capital will collect a percentage of their post-graduation salary for a number of years (similar to repaying a student loan). If scaled globally, Efiwe Capital can give millions of marginalized young people access to quality education, introduce them to the global workforce, and better their standards of living.  

The specific problem we are trying to solve is the lack of access to quality education. According to Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics, about forty percent of the nation's citizens live below the poverty line. One of the largest contributing factors is minimal education (only 62% literacy rate) and a large number of low-skilled workers, who are unable to access dignified employment or create enterprises of their own. According to Nigeria's Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, about 1.9 million students sit for entrance examinations into universities every year. From this number, more than 20,000 students fall into both very low-income/disadvantaged backgrounds and high potential (95th percentile). This is the primary demographic Efiwe Capital is set up to cater for. By providing unique education finance options for them, we can empower a new generation of young people and give them access to the opportunities of the future.  

Efiwe Capital is an education finance fund. We identify high-potential high school students from low-income families and pay all of their university tuition which will be repaid over time when they graduate and enter the workforce. Our process is as follows. We identify these students just before graduating high-school, after taking the nationwide university qualification exam in Nigeria. We contact them immediately to determine those genuinely in need of funding their education and encourage them to apply. Our algorithm assesses the background, personality type, and future earning potential of the students, and recommends a tailored loan repayment plan based on their profile (amount to be repaid, number of years, etc). After agreeing on terms, we sign a contract with them to process their future tuition payments. We also add them to our community of scholars across the country and support them with a physical and virtual community, learning aids, employability and entrepreneurship training, and academic support to enable them to maximize their potential while in the university. We continue to track their progress as they graduate, earn incomes, and begin the repayment process. We shall build a technology platform to optimize our processes, support them, and minimize the default rate.

The target population is 15 and 16-year old Nigerian students, who are in their final year of high school. They are smart, high potential candidates, and hope to further their education to the university. They come from low-income families, with parents who work as petty traders, security guards, public school teachers, or are often unemployed. Because they are unable to fund their university education, they often take on low-skilled employment and continue in similar careers as their parents, or resort to crime. We are in discussions with high school principals to better understand the demographics and needs of these students. We are also surveying our target audience to understand what drives them, their long-term goals, and how we can meet their needs. By developing the solution in line with their preferences, we are able to secure their buy-in, making them active members of our community, and ensuring the sustainability of operations, ultimately guaranteeing better lives for them. 

Our solution is directly aligned with the 'Good Jobs & Inclusive Entrepreneurship' challenge. Efiwe Capital is focused on marginalized populations, African students from low-income families, and helping them access post-secondary education, as well as training and a support network to groom them into being well-rounded, emotionally intelligent, and highly skilled professionals accessing the global workforce. Our technology platform will also provide digital literacy and entrepreneurship classes, making them in high demand for the technological transformation of the workplace, and equally suited to build and run companies of the future. 

Our solution has no direct competition in Nigeria. Education finance is relatively underdeveloped here, and even the government does not have a unified student loan program at any level. The universities are no better. However, indirect competitors include foundations and scholarship boards like MTN Foundation, Petroleum Technology Development Fund, Lagos State Government Bursary, Chevron-Agbami Medical & Engineering Scholarship, etc that provide stipends and or tuition fees to high-flying university students. Other indirect competitors include commercial banks and other financial institutions that create education funding plans that are signed by a working-class guardian and repaid with interest. Our solution is different because we require no guarantors or collateral from the students. Thanks to our algorithm, we are able to identify high potential students and take a bet on their future. In exchange, we will collect a specified percentage of their salary for a number of years (e.g. 15% for 5 years) to recoup our investment. 

Globally, non-interest-based education finance, while not yet mainstream is gaining ground. Our direct competitor is Brain Capital, an innovative education fund based in Germany that allows students access to quality education. However, while Brain Capital is profit-based, Efiwe Capital operates as a non-profit. All returns on investment are reinvested into our fund, enabling even more marginalized students to access a quality higher education.

Our solution at Efiwe Capital is an education finance fund that relies on technology. At a basic level, we require a website to receive applications from around the country, a database that will store and update all their information, and a  profile section that tracks all student progress over the years as they progress within the community.

However, our platform will rely heavily on big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to analyze all the application data such as test scores, essays, income statements, etc to rank our applicants based on need (proof of low-income status) and high potential (comparison of scores to nationwide averages, etc). We will also be using AI technology to assess the complexity and comprehension level of the essays, consistency in application forms, and anti-forgery of uploaded documents. Combining all of this with their skills, interests, and planned profession, our algorithm will tailor unique repayment plans to specific categories of students.

For confirmed members of our community, we shall have an online learning community, introducing them to courses on leadership, problem-solving, entrepreneurship, as well as technology-based skills like UX Design, Data Analysis, and Web Development to ensure their overall progress. Tracking and processing these huge amounts of data will enable us to ensure the community is on track. It will also help us identify and correct potential red flags among our students long before they have the opportunity to default on loan repayment.

The learning experience component of the technology is widely popular, with many companies like Udemy, Udacity, etc creating online courses and managing communities virtually. The machine learning and ranking algorithm is fairly common as well, with banks, online lenders, and interest-based education finance companies like Prodigy Finance assess an individual's past history (credit rating, academic distinctions, etc) to make predictions as to an individual's ability to repay.

Our solution has been delayed by COVID-19 as the nationwide university entrance examinations in Nigeria (usually in April) have been postponed till further notice. As a result, our launch Class of 2020 has zero confirmed candidates. 

In one year, we will serve 100 students.

In 5 years, we will serve 5,000 students.

In the next year, we will onboard our first cohort of 100 students and begin the journey with them. We will also form partnerships with Nigeria's 10 finest public higher institutions, giving us direct access to high potential admits for the long-term. We will also sign agreements with leading foundations and scholarship boards to invest their funds with us, rather than giving directly to students year after year with no long-term benefit.

In 5 years, our initial model will have supported 5,000 students, and our very first cohort will have begun to repatriate funds into our purse. We will expand into private universities, replicate our model across West Africa, and set up a similar fund for students who want to go abroad for graduate study. Our online learning community will spin-off to an accredited online university focused on 21st-century skills for in-demand professions. We will also incorporate as a venture capital and fund education technology startups in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the next year, barriers include return to academic calendar because of COVID-19, initial capital investment to fund tuition fees, and convincing students and partners to commit to this new education finance model. 

For the next 5 years, potential barriers to success include high student default rate, government legislation making tertiary education free, lack of technical talent and expertise to build technology platforms, raising of follow-up capital to scale operations, high level of unemployment making fund repatriation difficult, etc.

The COVID-19 challenge is difficult to solve, as it is impossible to determine when life will return to normal. All Nigerian schools and learning institutions have been closed, and resumption measures will be put in place by the government. We are currently sourcing the $150,000 capital investment to implement all operational activities for the first cohort.

We intend to keep default rates low by being intentional about building an amazing and supportive community of ethical and upright students. We will show them care and support, making them emotionally invested in the success of the initiative and more willing to 'pay it forward'. We will also have access to important identification details like international passport, national identity card, and bank verification number to track potential defaulters. In addition, our algorithm will be built to identify potential defaulters long before they get the opportunity to do so.

To solve the unemployment problem, our training courses on entrepreneurship will be taught to all students. We will encourage them to try out business ideas, and launch an initiative to fund their startups at the seed/pre-seed stage. 

We shall maintain a good relationship with the government including partnerships, board appointments, etc to support our initiatives. We shall also operate in an 'Agile' manner, allowing us to pivot easily to any of the other business models if regulations make the current one more challenging.

2. One full-time, one part time.

We are well-positioned to understand this problem and deliver the solution because we have the skills and experience to do so. 

As a student, I was a founding member of Professor Ayodele Awojobi Design Competition, Nigeria's largest student technology & design competition. In the 4 years since our incorporation, we have grown to 30+ schools across Nigeria and rewarded tens of thousands of dollars to outstanding student innovators and entrepreneurs. We have also formed partnerships with dozens of organizations, including SIEMENS, Coca-Cola Bottling Company, MTN, Lagos State Government Office of Innovation, etc. I also served as the Regional Promotions Manager for AIESEC, the world's largest youth-run organization. I know what it means to build a community, in terms of training, forging partnerships, raising money and long-term execution.

In spite of these, I graduated with 1st class honors in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Lagos and secured a full-time job offer with a tech startup 6 months before graduation. I am privileged to have seen just how much someone can achieve regardless of their background firsthand and am confident that we can deliver much more to the thousands of talented young people from low-income backgrounds across Africa.

We are raising investment capital for phase 1, and are actively working towards donations and grants as well. By phase 2, the first cohort of our students will be in active employment and will begin their repayment plans. These monies feedback into our pool, ultimately making the organization self-sufficient.