Nigerian Edtech firm, 11 others to benefit from MasterCard grants | EduCeleb
Ahmed Iyanda
25th February 2020
HITCH, a Nigerian educational video platform that provides underserved African schools with curated, high-quality educational content among other African Edtech companies will benefit from the MasterCard Foundation Centres support to expand their operations and improve secondary teaching and learning across the continent.
According to the centre, the beneficiaries were selected following an Africa-wide request for proposals late last year.
Innovators were invited to submit proposals that either enhance and increase accessibility and affordability of professional development for in-service teachers, which also minimizes their out of classroom time; or create and deliver enriched learning content that improves quality, relevance, and accessibility to both in-school and out-of-school secondary school learners.
Chief Program Officer at the Mastercard Foundation, Peter Materu said, “The announcement of these first Fellows at the Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning is a milestone moment in the work we are carrying out in Africa. Bringing together these talented entrepreneurs and supporting them as they innovate to drive excellence in teaching and learning offers new opportunities with great potential to raise the bar in African education and benefit tens of millions of students.”
According to him, the companies will receive a comprehensive package that includes customized mentorship, financial support, the opportunity to test, validate and scale their business, and a $40, 000 grant to aid the development of their solutions.
The other selected EdTech companies are O’Genius Priority, Rwanda; iCog Labs, Ethiopia; M-Shule, Kenya; The Dr. C.L. Smith Foundation, Kytabu Co. Ltd., Kenya; Litemore, Kenya, Chalkboard Education, Ghana; Siyavula Education, South Africa and Instill Education, South Africa.
Launched in 2018, the Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning, a five-year initiative is aimed at sparking innovation and promote promising practices in the use of information and communications technologies for teaching and learning, and to catalyze significant improvements in education across the continent.
“We’re very proud and excited to have this first group of leading African innovators in EdTech with us,” said Joseph Nsengimana, Head of the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT.
“These companies are working to expand the use of ICT to address some of the most pressing issues facing education in Africa today.
“We will give them access to the customized mentoring and financial support they need over the next year so that they can test, refine, and validate their products.
“With that, they can grow their businesses and help to improve learning outcomes throughout Africa.”