Meet Ogechi, social entrepreneur using gaming to drive learning

Ogechi Esimai, is the founder of TAW Academy, a creative education- social enterprise that designs fun learning tools and educational board games to promote experiential learning, and develop success skills in children ages 0 to 18.

The serial entrepreneur said she started running summer programmes where she raised N250,000 to produce prototypes for one of the games that was tested in schools.

Besides, she won the Tony Elumelu Foundation grant which served as the needed boost to kick-start the business.

“Our products had a full market entry by 2018, I design tools and programmes that empower the African child with practical, experiential and skill based learning,” she said.

Ogechi was inspired to venture into the business by the realisation that most African schools used rote learning, theory based and examination based approach to learning devoid of engagement and thinking from the child.

“I was a life-skills volunteer teacher for public school students under a World Bank Project called Eko Project. The goal of the project was to improve learning outcomes in public schools.

“I coached over 60,000 children in a space of five years in over 80 schools. It was then I realised that most African schools used rote learning, theory based and exam based approach to learning that’s devoid of engagement and thinking from the child,” she explained.

According to Ogechi, such a system of education was like going to school without being educated because the skills, life and hands on skills were lacking.

“This is a wrong foundation and accounts to why we have graduates that are dependent and lacking requisite life skills to thrive in life or compete on a global stage.

To fill this gap, I built a team that designs educational board games that translate learning to fun, making learning participative, collaborative, and inclusive and skill based. Every child on a board from TAW Academy must think, design, create, plan, execute and work towards a goal.

“They learn to lead, work with others even as they are learning Maths, English, STEM, Research, and Innovation, among others. We are turning around African education into an empowerment tool for the African child,” she said.

Speaking on how the business has grown so far, she said, “We began with two major board games, chewa word booster game and Mindo Maths booster game.

“Today, we have eight educational board games and four think task project games. Our board games teach core subjects such as English, Maths, STEM, Innovation, Business, Research, and Recycling and develop success skills in children.”

The board games, she explained, empower children with critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, communication, and inclusivity among others.

“We have some global recognition, and an Innovation Education Global Award has awarded us a top 100 education innovator in the world. MindoBee presently has over 20 life-skills and hands-on skills apps for children and schools,” she added.

Ogechi explained that TAW Academy’s niche is in its focus on African education development.

“Our board games are unique: they combine class subjects with fun, engagement and develop the child’s success skills; they are innovative tools for making education engaging and empowering for African children,” she said.

She emphasized that the business expansion plan is to double its current 300,000 children and 450 schools using the boards for learning in two years.

To navigate the accelerating inflation, Ogechi explained that the firm switched to using local resources to produce the boards.

“When we started, we were importing major parts of the boards but with inflation and dollar issues, we have to re-strategised in a way, we won’t have to sell the boards so costly and defeat the purpose of using them for learning.

“Our target is to have all levels of schools in Africa using the tools and we didn’t want a high cost to be a barrier. Presently a major part of the board is with local resources,” she said.

Though, lack of funds to scale, market dynamics and no support for export especially to other African countries beyond Nigeria has been a major challenge to upscaling the business, she said her company has been able to push forward with the profits made.

Ogechi believes Nigeria has very huge opportunities in the education technology-business space; though the enabling environment to spur and boost such businesses are not there yet.

She counsels upcoming entrepreneurs to be innovative to avoid being out of business soonest.

“Keep devising new ways to serve your customers, innovating new patterns that fit into what your customers need. Besides, you should define your environment with your passion, impact and consistency of purpose,” she said.