Zenafri

One of the reasons why there’s such an education deficit in Africa is because we have thousands of indigenous languages. Most children grow up speaking their mother tongue as a first language and then when they go off to school, from the get-go they are expected to learn concepts in English or the lingua franca of that country. Adapting is difficult for most and thus forms a shaky foundation that they are then expected to build on. This consequently leads to average or below average students and graduates.

So we decided to leverage the increasing affordability of smartphones in Africa to focus on the early education of African children. We have built a series of mobile apps that teach children foundation concepts in native African languages and English using culturally relevant themes that are easy for them to identify with.

Researchers have shown that many children in Africa do not speak their country's lingua franca (typically English, French, Portuguese or Arabic) as a first language. However, these same children are expected to learn in these languages. This creates a unique problem, making the assimilation of what is being taught harder and generally extends the learning time. According to UNESCO, the best way to educate children is through their mother tongue or with contexts they understand.

Fluency and literacy in the native language lay a cognitive and linguistic foundation for learning additional languages. According to the UNESCO 2011 PIRLS assessment, in seven countries at least 10% of students reported speaking a different language at home from the one they were tested in.

In all these countries, their likelihood of achieving minimum learning standards in reading was lower than for students whose home language was the language of assessment.

Our primary users are African children aged between 1 and 10, with specific apps for different age groups.
A strong foundation in numeracy and literacy has been shown to improve future earning power by as much as 300%.

We also focus on girl child education by providing strong identifiable characters in our apps and animated series.

Our solution leads to better and improved learning for young children both in Africa and outside the continent. The impact is even greater as over time, faster and easier access to quality education has been shown to direct influence the economy of countries positively.

Founded in 2016, Zenafri Limited simplifies learning for African children by creating mobile applications and video content (animation) that teach children in their native languages and in contexts they understand.

We currently have 2 educational app series

1) - Teseem-First Words is an award winning application that teaches toddlers their first words in traditional African languages like Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Swahili making it easier for them to learn since it is in their mother tongue before they begin to study in English or French.

2) – Afrotalez narrates traditional African folktales and the lessons they imbibe while teaching basic classroom lessons such as object recognition, numbering, lettering and more

In addition we are currently working on an animated cartoon series based on Afrotalez which is to be distributed digitally . It features Shani a 5 year old girl who adventures into African folktales while learning basic literacy skills and providing a strong inspiration for girl child education on the continent.

Our solution is unique because it combines 3 main elements .

- Modern Mobile Technology (Apps)

- Relevant African Content ( Languages and Context)

- and Education

We believe this innovative mix makes us an effective solution for the African market

Teseem-First Words, (for example) is an app that teaches first words to African children in native African languages like Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Swahili and of course allows them see the equivalent of those words in English as well.

We primarily focus on building for the Android platform because it is used by 80% of our market (IOS accounts for just 13% in Africa) but we also ensure our development software is multi-platform allowing us cater to that market as well if/when needed.

Because our users are using lower end smartphones , with limited space and memory we also ensure that are builds are as light-weight as possible ( in download size)

Our users are very young, so we integrate simple interactive touch controls and responsive animation.

So in a typical scenario,  They see a blue ball which when they touch bounces around, it says the word “blue” in their language, shows how it is spelt and uses it in a simple sentence. They can then engage with that same scenario in the English section of the app and because it is fun and interactive an easier connection is made and quicker more efficient learning occurs.

Going forward as the market becomes more evolved, we intend to explore transiting these experiences we already have into Virtual Reality and how this can be used in schools to enhance experiential learning. We intend to test pilot this with our school partners in early 2020

Research by UNESCO has already shown that learning in native languages can improve learning times and outcomes .

According to the UNESCO 2011 PIRLS assessment, in seven countries at least 10% of students reported speaking a different language at home from the one they were tested in.

In all these countries, their likelihood of achieving minimum learning standards in reading was lower than for students whose home language was the language of assessment. In many parts of western Africa, French continues to be the main language of instruction, so the vast majority of children are taught from the early grades in a language they are not familiar with, seriously hampering their chance of learning. In Benin, for example, over 80% of grade 5 students who speak the test language at home achieve minimum learning in reading, compared with less than 60% of the 9 out of 10 students who speak another language.

From our analytics, our apps have already been proven to improve learning time for basic literacy concepts by an average of 60%.

- We have currently served over 180,000 people

- In the next year we intend to grow this to 1 Million Kids primarily through 3 new educational apps

- In the next 5 years, we will be serving over 8 Million African kids with improved Digital Early Education Content through our Subscription Platform

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As mentioned above , through our Educational Apps we have already reached over 180,000 children.

Over the next year , we will expand this to 1 Million children through regional and global distribution of our apps and our new cartoon series.

Our biggest challenges are Financial and Marketing/Sales.

As with any startup , financing is typically a challenge in the early stages and it is no different for us.

We also currently have not reached the numbers required for sustainability and this is primarily due to a lack of complete proficiency in Marketing and s.ales

For the financial challenge, In the short term we have raised personal funds as runway for the next few months. This will allow us to hit our next set of milestones which will see us generating larger revenue and on our way to profitability.

After that , we intend to raise Equity Funding to scale and have already courted a few potentially interested Venture Partners.

We are engaging a Sales Manager in the short to handle our sales to coporates.

Not applicable

Full Time Staff - 3

Part Time Staff - 10

Contractors - (varies for project, averagely about 15)

Elizabeth Kperrun is the CEO of Zenafri. She holds qualifications in Mass Communication (Ahmadu Bello University) and Business and Entrepreneurial Management (National Open University of Nigeria). She is a firm advocate of creating greater opportunities for Africa’s children and young women.

Idamiebi Ilamina-Eremie has over 7 years’ experience in App and Game Development, and is one of the pioneers of Nigeria and indeed Africa’s Game Development movement having previously founded Sonbim Games. He serves as the Technical Lead at Zenafri and is a graduate of Computer Engineering.

Beyond this we have a very talented team of young writers, artist and animators.

Ventures Platform Accelerator - Serves as an Advisory and Mentoring Partner as well as Seed Investor.

Bloomfield Children's School - Bloomfield provides Curriculum consulting to ensure our products are in line with relevant Curricula . They also provide Testing for Our New and existing Products

Our current key customers are African women (mothers) aged between 25-45 who have children between the ages of 1-10 who form the beneficiaries for our projects.

We currently provide our applications for free and users can pay for additional content within the apps when their children are done with the free content. In addition those who cannot afford (or do not want to pay) for content can engage with relevant adverts which unlock the content for a limited time.

Going forward with the production of our animated series and it's accompanying apps, we will add new B2B customers, primarily TV networks and video-on-demand providers starting with DSTV in Africa.

At the moment we intend to use Personal Funds as well as some grant funding to produce Season 1 of our cartoon series and our next 3 apps.

We intend to then license the cartoon series to several TV networks and streaming services. In addition our existing and new apps will generate revenue through a mix of advertising (for markets with less purchasing power) and  in-app purchases ( for more mature markets)
Funding from this will enable us be Financially sustainable and aim for profitability so that we can create even greater  impact.

So Ideally our funding should be Revenue based. We will explore if we would need additional Equity/Venture funds as we progress.

We intend to break even by the end of 2020.

Further plans include the development of a subscription platform within the next 3 years which will aggregate all our educational interactive and multimedia content

We are early stage and while we have proven that there is interest in our products , we have fully cracked monetization in other to be sustainable.

We look forward to benefiting from mentorship especially from other entrepreneurs  in the Edtech space.

We also need to expand our distribution and marketing as part of the reason we aren't yet sustainable is because we haven't scaled enough. We especially look forward to specific introductions to App Store Managers covering the Africa Region.

We seek possible partnerships for distribution of our animated series as well.

We would love contacts to App Store Managers at Google Play and Apple.
These are specifically important as they can provide advice on app optimization and more important , they recommend apps for features on the regional stores. These features can often been the boost an app needs at launch to gain the visibility required for success.

We also in the short term would like love to partner with African themed TV stations globally to license and distribute"Afrotalez the animated series" , targets include Africa Magic on DSTV in Africa,as well as The Africa Channel in the US.

Generally we would love to partner with content distributors who are interested in African themed but globally relevant content for African kids.

Our new animation and app project, Afrotalez - The animated series features Shani, an intelligent 5 year old girl who through imagination enters into African Folktales where children learn basic literacy and numeracy skills while improving morals/emotional maturity.

We aim to provide a strong young role model for young girls even from the early years

If we win, the Prize will go directly to the development of 3 new accompanying apps for the series. It will help cover some development costs (programming, art, animation, etc)

In addition we have another project Decisions - Cecelia's Choices which advocates for Gender Equality and Advocacy Issues and touches on issues like Poverty, Sexual and Reproductive Health and more.