African Edtech Startup uLesson Bags License To Launch Online University

Nigerian edtech, uLesson, which offers subscriptions-based pre-recorded and live immersive video lessons for elementary and secondary scholars in 8 African countries, has secured an online university license for Miva University, its new platform for tertiary education.

Miva has obtained an Open Distance eLearning License following the recommendation of the National Universities Commission to Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council, uLesson Founder/CEO, Sim Shagaya, shared in a tweet today announcing the milestone. This would enable uLesson to expand its digital learning platform to cater to university degrees in Nigeria.

“We have dreamed of this day for 4 years – since the very founding of uLesson,” Shagaya shared. “Our entry into the tertiary segment comes at a time when the very definition of a university is changing and the demand for effective affordable tertiary education is as acute as ever.”

Since launching in 2019, uLesson—which initially started out with a product that saw it provide a pack of SD cards and dongles with pre-recorded videos to K-12 students—has refined its business model to deliver an app hosting thousands of round-the-clock educational video lessons delivered by expert tutors.

Backed by notable edtech investors such as Tencent and Owl Ventures to the tune of ~USD 26 M thus far, uLesson boasts individual and enterprise paying customers in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Kenya, and a few other countries; drawing 3.5 million app downloads and 10.6 million lessons watched, per the company website.

Miva, the latest addition to the uLesson fold, represents a foray into the expanding advanced learning environment as part of the growing global online education industry, projected to hit USD 585.48 B by 2027, according to one report.

“Miva Open University will push the boundaries of accessibility, affordability, efficacy, convenience and innovation,” Shagaya added.

Miva is starting out with degrees in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Accounting, Economics, Business Management, Public Policy & Administration, Data Science and Cybersecurity. The platform will, according to the CEO, “eventually expand into other degree areas including nursing and law and leverage any and every technological tool that will allow us to offer more and more to learners.”