Denis Opudo
Most Nigerian students are having problems when it comes to accessing quality education. This might be due to lack of means or lack of knowledge about the existing opportunities. ScholarX comes in to help students to access quality education anytime they need it. The startup launched a scholarship aggregation app in 2016. The app will help students to access undergraduate and graduate opportunities. The opportunities will be accessible both locally and abroad. The scholarship is based on student’s choice and preference. Furthermore, it offers tips for successful application. The app has already registered more than 10,000 users.
However, the students have difficulties in paying scholarship application fees and school fees as a whole. So the startup launched Village in September 2017. Village allows professionals mainly in overseas to sponsor needy students. The startup is working in line with the saying “It takes a village to raise a child.” The needy students both in high school and university do create profiles. They then use the platform to share their stories and needs hoping to convince a donor for support. So far Village has received around 500 fund requests. it has also secured donation worth almost $10,000. All this have happened in its first five months since the launch.
ScholarX is planning to allow the donors to sponsor projects in schools. Example of the projects includes equipping labs and IT centers. This will help in reducing education-related problems in the country. Most Nigerian schools have various problems like unpaid teachers, unequipped schools among others. Furthermore, almost 10.5 million Nigerian children are not attending school. This has increased the level of illiteracy in Nigeria and it is not expected to change soon. The 2018 budget proposes only 7% of the total to support education. The value less than UN’s recommendation of 26%.
ScholarX’s major funding has come from the founders. However, it charges 10% fee for every funding campaign on Village. They also charge an annual fee of $3 for those who want to access ScholarX app. Moreover, the startup gets money from individuals and organizations.
