Innovate for Africa

Start-ups in Nigeria struggle to find skilled talent. They suggest that universities have not prepared the 500,000 graduates per year with 21st century skills such as critical thinking, communication, and creativity; more importantly, the students do not have an innovator mindset.

Innovate for Africa is a social impact venture that prepares graduating university students from Nigeria to become innovators in their local ecosystem. By recruiting self learners with grit and growth mindset, training them through our “Innovation Readiness” program,  and placing them to work at start-up, both aspiring entrepreneurs and start-ups will be more likely to succeed. IFA is an innovative business model that provides an inclusive pathway to innovation to create good jobs while supporting existing entrepreneurs. When scaled to reach the 25 million unemployed youth in Nigeria and other African countries, innovation can eradicate poverty as it creates solutions to societal problems, investments, and employment opportunities.

Nicknamed as “Yabacon Valley,” Lagos is an emerging tech hub in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2019, Nigerian startups received approximately $660 million in investments, the largest amount in Africa (Shapshak, 2020). However, when compared to other innovation hubs such as Kenya and South Africa, the failure rate for start-ups in Nigeria is much higher at 61% (Oluwabunmi, 2020). 

One of the challenges that start-ups face is finding skilled talent. While 500,000 students graduate from universities in Nigeria every year, only approximately 50% gain employment within the first year of graduation (International Labour Organization, 2019). One of the causes to Nigeria’s skills gap is the low education standards. The current degree programs are not designed around market needs leaving graduates without marketable skills (OC&C, 2018). Stutern’s 2018 Nigerian Graduate Report found that more than 50% of the graduates stated that their education did not help them develop the key skills for today’s market. While 69.4% of these graduates concluded that more generally, their education prepared them for employment, only 28.6% of employers agreed. This skills gap continues to hamper innovative start-ups from becoming successful and exacerbates the youth unemployment problem in Nigeria.

Innovate for Africa is a social impact venture that prepares graduating university students from Nigeria to become innovators in their local ecosystem by training and matching them at a start-up. IFA’s mission is to create the next generation of innovators and strengthen the overall innovative ecosystem in Nigeria. Our activities include:

1. Recruitment and Selection Process - The selection process will identify entrepreneurial potential by selecting self-learners with high growth mindset and demonstrated grit/perseverance as reflected in their personal statements, resumes, references, video interview, and grit soft skills assessment.

2. Innovation Readiness Training Curriculum - Selected fellows participate in a one-month “Innovation Readiness” learning module online that prepares them to be innovators. The core learning objectives center around creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and leadership with guest speakers, case studies, group projects, and online portfolio assignments.

3. Start-up and Continued Support - After the completion of the learning module,  fellows will be placed in one of the IFA partnered start-ups. Fellows will receive monthly professional development workshops to continue to refine their innovation skills and actively build the community of young innovators.

On our supply side, we serve the 63% of the 25 million youth who are unemployed in Nigeria (International Labour Organization, 2019). We segmented our end users to focus on science, technology, engineering, arts, or mathematics (STEAM) university graduates in Lagos, who have interest in entrepreneurship and innovation. We visited Lagos to lead an Entrepreneurship workshop. Through primary market research, we identified the following barriers:

1) Lack of exposure and mentorship from actual entrepreneurs.

2) Lack of practical experience. 

3) Lack of network.

Innovate for Africa will provide placement at a start-up, a robust training curriculum with guest speakers from different entrepreneurs, and a community of innovators.

On our demand side, we are serving Nigerian start-ups that are seeking human capital as part of their growth strategies. From our interviews, start-ups face the following challenges:

1) Hires that are not proficient in critical soft skills.

2) Lack of time and resources to look for talent. 

3) Lack of resources to train new hires.

Innovate for Africa will address their needs by providing them start-up ready employees at a subsidized rate.

We just completed the training portion of our program (May-June) and continue to engage with our end-users for feedback.

Our mission is to strengthen the local innovation system. For the unemployed, IFA provides an opportunity to learn and practice innovation  at a start-up, equipping workers with durable and digital skills. Given job opportunities are determined by network, IFA’s selection process is more meritocratic since it lowers the barriers for the graduates to gain access to training that transforms them into innovators. 

Furthermore, IFA works to create good jobs. For start-ups, IFA provides access to talent so that they can succeed, scale, and provide more jobs. Lastly, our fellows are more likely to be entrepreneurs who will create more jobs.

University students use the following channels to find opportunities after graduation:

• Personal connections

• Instagram and LinkedIn

• Recruiting agencies such as Trupurpose

• Government programs such as National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)

• Workforce development programs such as Andela

Those who are motivated to pursue entrepreneurship may apply for accelerator programs such as Startupbootcamp and Startup Nigeria to start their company after graduation.

IFA provides a career pathway towards entrepreneurship and innovation, which most aspiring students would not pursue because of the lack of specific programming and risk aversion. By providing high-quality education training through a curriculum created from entrepreneurs & educators, and experiential learning through a paid placement at a start-up, IFA creates a unique intermediary to becoming an entrepreneur--working at a start-up. This speaks to the risk-averse mindset most graduates have in Nigeria due to the economic hardships and the youth unemployment rate.

For start-ups, recruitment practices include using LinkedIn, Instagram, and referrals which have not successfully provided fit candidates. They have also relied on in-house application screeners and workforce development, but this has proven difficult with limited time and resources. IFA is unique because it provides innovation training for culturally fit and skilled local hires at a low cost since the students are motivated for a learning opportunity.

Ultimately, the innovation comes from a unique approach to creating an innovation system that allows current and aspiring entrepreneurs to succeed: 

• Current entrepreneurs receive talent who are trained to be innovators

• Aspiring entrepreneurs receive experience to shape them as innovators

We adopt innovative technology throughout the IFA program: from recruitment to the placement of IFA fellows into innovative start-ups.

1. Recruitment - We utilize digital marketing and search engine optimization through Instagram, LinkedIn, and Wix to recruit our fellows. Given the volume of applicants, we used Qualtrics to store their application data. As we scale, we are considering using predictive hiring to screen our applicants through programs such as Koru7 as they specifically identify grit (one of our selection metrics).

2. Training -  For our one-month Start-up Readiness Training, we utilized Zoom, Google Classrooms, and Slack to recreate a meaningful learning experience online. Students also created a digital portfolio through Wix in order to showcase their skills to start-ups as well as provide a deliverable for us to assess their skills. As we scale, we will explore different learning management systems to host asynchronous training videos.

3. Placement - Currently, we receive placement preferences from start-ups and fellows to match. However, as we scale, we will look towards artificial intelligence to optimize the matching process.

Predictive hiring is already used in various companies that have been specifically recognized for their work environment and culture such as JetBlue and Zappos. While predictive hiring started with hard skills, it has shown to be successful in evaluating mindsets, behaviors, and soft skills. We have identified Koru7 as a potentially fit predictive hiring tool as it identifies 7 soft skills: grit, rigor, impact, teamwork, curiosity, ownership, and polish. Koru7 users have seen a 30-60% increase in high performing employees.

As for the technology we use in our training, online learning platforms have always existed and are increasingly popular due to COVID-19. Higher institutions are using Zoom and a learning management system such as Canvas. Studies have shown that online classes have been more  effective for teaching lower-order thinking skills, but less effective for higher-order thinking skills. As we look to utilize learning management systems for a mixture of asynchronous and synchronous learning, we will split the content based on lower and higher-order thinking skills. Moreover, augmented reality and virtual reality are increasingly more popular in workforce development with companies such as Mursion.

Lastly, matching algorithms are widely used to connect candidates to employers with programs such as Sovren, Talent Adore, and Pepelwerk.

Our theory of change is that if we rigorously recruit self-learners with grit and growth mindset, train them through our “Innovation Readiness” program,  support and place them at an innovative start-up, then current and aspiring entrepreneurs will be more likely to succeed to strengthen the innovation ecosystem in Nigeria.  Our core is our effective “Innovation Readiness” curriculum that has been crafted by a mixture of entrepreneurs, educators, and consultants. The strengths in this curriculum include real-life case study analysis, online portfolio deliverables, guest speakers, and participation by our partnering IFA start-ups in order to create a genuine learning experience. By doing this, the direct outcomes are:

• 100% of our fellows in the first year, proficient in our start-up readiness indicators.

•  100% of our fellows are employed at an innovation-driven start-up after our program

• Within 5 years after the program, at least 70% of the fellows continue to contribute or start an innovation-driven start-up.

• 100% of start-ups with our fellows that meet their department KPI’s

• At least 90% IFA start-ups continue to operate for at least 5 years.

We are currently testing out this assumption by collecting data in our pilot program. So far, with the final deliverables, all our fellows have shown proficiency in the start-up readiness indicators and are already placed at an innovation-driven start-up. We will continue to collect these metrics to test our assumptions.

With successful entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Nigerian ecosystem, our impact in Nigeria is to build a stronger innovation ecosystem. This will be apparent through an increase in the number of innovation-driven enterprises and the elimination of youth unemployment. This assumption is based on MIT’s Innovation Ecosystem Framework that highlights the relationship between universities and entrepreneurs as instrumental in developing human entrepreneurial and innovation capacity. We have also looked to the power of innovation and start-ups to create jobs and contribute to development through Clayton Christensen, Efoso Ojomo, and Karen Dillon’s study in The Prosperity Paradox.

Through our pilot program, we trained and placed 7 fellows.

By year 1, we plan to do 2 cycles with 30 fellows = 60 fellows.

After finding mechanisms to horizontally scale, we will expand to different locations to run multiple cycles simultaneously throughout the year, allowing us to reach 6 cycles of 50 fellows = 300 fellows. By year 5, we plan to scale rapidly to reach 24 cycles of 50 fellows = 1,200 fellows.

Our future plans to vertically scale is to provide more support and offerings for our fellows. After the 1-year program, we will aim to expand our resources such as connections to accelerators, incubators, and seed funding to promote their entrepreneurial journey.

In order to scale horizontally, we will use predictive hiring, AI, and learning management systems to optimize our processes, which will allow us to increase the number of fellows we recruit, train, and match per cycle. We will also be able to expand into other locations such as Abuja, Kaduna, and Port Harcourt. In terms of scaling our demand-side market (our start-ups) we will partner with venture capitalists to have a more automated funnel of start-ups and identify other market opportunities in other countries. Our future plans to vertically scale is to provide more support and offerings for our fellows. After the 1-year program, we will expand our resources such as connections to accelerators, incubators, and seed funding to promote their entrepreneurial journey.

Our social impact calculations are predicated on the fact that an entire Nigerian innovative ecosystem leads to a higher probability of success for start-ups, implying an exponential correlation between the number of IFA fellows and social impact. These include:

1. Private value for fellows and start-ups as quantified by the average increase of salary.
2. Reduced social costs attached to unemployment 
3. Salary increase from job creations due to more start-ups in the ecosystem
4. Increased government revenue such as the amount of employment gained 

• 1 fellow = $21,230
• 20 fellows = $457,250
• 500 fellows = $13,880,000
• 100,000 fellows = $3.43 billion

The bottleneck to scaling is in our demand-side: start-ups. This is an essential market barrier to address as they provide revenue, experiential learning opportunities, and salary for our fellows. In our pilot program, we had to onboard start-ups in our sales funnel. While it was not difficult to match start-ups with fellows in our pilot program given the manageable amount of start-ups and fellows we had, we anticipate technical barriers to do this effectively.

On the supply-side, we have technical barriers to adequately select the IFA fellows. In our pilot program, we created processes to review over 100 applicants, interview 20, and select 7 applicants. This allowed us to be methodical to select IFA fellows based on the selection criteria of grit, self-learning attitude, and growth-mindset. However, as we scale, we anticipate the number of applicants to be close to 6,000 by Year 5. 

Another aspect is our method of delivery for the Start-Up Readiness program. Our pilot program proved to be effective as our fellows completed deliverables proving proficiency in start-up readiness indicators (creativity, communication, and critical thinking) AND received placements at a start-up. When scaling for more students, there could be a technical barrier to continue providing quality educational delivery to a higher volume of students. For example, some of our fellows had issues with internet and power.

Market Barrier -  Onboarding Start-ups: In our pilot program, we relied on direct sales tactics to provide us enough paying customers (start-ups) to test our model. We also identified an opportunity to automate our marketing channels through partnerships with larger start-ups networks and incubators such as iDEA, 440NG, and Parati as they support Nigerian technology-based start-ups. Furthermore, one of our partnering start-ups came from the MIT and Harvard start-up community as they were interested in expanding their market into Nigeria. By partnering with incubators at Harvard, MIT, and Solve, we would be able to provide local talent for a larger range of start-ups.

Technical Barrier: Matching. As highlighted in the Technology section, we could explore AI and matching algorithms already used in employment matching software.

Technical Barrier: Selection of Fellows. As highlighted in the Technology section, we could use AI and predictive hiring software such as Koru7.

Technical Barrier: Method of Delivery. As highlighted in the Technology section, we will explore using learning management systems to create interactive learning content that can be conducted asynchronously. However, in order to maintain community and uphold a quality educational experience, we will strategically deliver higher-order thinking content synchronously through video conference tools. One of the challenges in our pilot program was internet connectivity. We hope to partner with MTN or Airtel in Nigeria to provide our fellows with access to the internet.

• 2 Full-Time Staff

• 3 Part-Time Staff

We are a mixture of entrepreneurs, educators, and consultants. Our team has diversity, commitment, and networks. Beyond this, our edge is our empathy: we are constantly talking to our users to gather insight and truly create a user-center program.

Quadri Oguntade (MBA at MIT). He brings local knowledge as he was born and raised in Nigeria. Previously a Management & Technology consultant at Deloitte, an Electrical Engineering Master’s graduate, and an entrepreneur, he knows how STEAM translates to innovation.

Margaret Wang (Ed.M at HGSE). She has experience in curriculum design and teaching entrepreneurship in formal and informal learning environments. She has also worked as a product manager at an early stage technology company.

Alex Grady (Ed.M at HGSE). He has experience developing curriculum for and facilitating social entrepreneurial learning. He worked at MIT Solve, developing an edX course for early-stage social entrepreneurs.

Shafira Dini (Ed.M at HGSE) She has experience in curriculum design, think tank research, and teaching STEM in Japan. She has developed policy recommendations in tackling youth unemployment issues in Indonesia with the regional office of education.

Mary Nagel (Ed.M at HGSE). She has experience in forming partnerships through her previous work in the federal government and multinational organizations such as USAID and World Bank. She has also promoted initiatives to engage the youth in entrepreneurship under the Obama Administration.

• Operation Impact at Harvard University provided IFA initial pilot funding, digital resources (Wix), and community of education innovators in which our co-founders met.

• Harvard Innovation Lab (iLab) Venture Program provides IFA with advisors in the industry area, technical resources, and a community of like-minded individuals.

• University of Lagos and Covenant University Entrepreneurship Centers allowed our co-founders to test our workshop with their students and then subsequently, market our pilot program.

For graduated university students in Nigeria who want to be innovators but need employment, Innovate for Africa is an innovation-readiness program that provides them labor-demanded and entrepreneurial skills, employment at a start-up, and networks to become future innovators. For employment alone, fellows will gain:

• ~45% increased immediate earning potential

• ~100% increased salary 3 years after the program

For growing start-ups in Nigeria who need an adaptable workforce but have limited resources, IFA provides recruitment, selection, and training of human capital that fit within the start-up culture at a low-price. We have quantified the value:

Without IFA:

• In house HR (~40 hours) ~= $1,233

• In house training (~20 hours) or upskilling 4-day training = $395

• Average salary for product manager or business analyst (11 months) ~= $5,650

Total: $7,278

With IFA:

• Provides recruitment and training for $1,500

• Provides access to top talent for a subsidized salary (11 months) ~= $2,860

Total: $4,360

Total Savings: $2,918

As of right now, our revenue will come primarily from start-ups. We have chosen a price of $1,500 per matched fellow through a subscription model since we are a new organization as well as the current market realities due to COVID-19. We also charge $15/applicant with financial aid offerings in order to continue with our value of inclusivity.  In addition, to diversify our revenue stream, we seek donations and grants.

The one time  placement fees paid by the start-up per fellow will be IFA's  primary revenue stream. Although we quantified the value of services to be approximately $7,000 per fellow, our price point will be $1,500 per fellow, per year for our initial pilot program as a perk for our “early adopters” due to the following reasons:

1. IFA will need data and time to build its credibility as an organization that will signal to the employers that the graduates are worth the investment.

2. Start-ups are limiting their spending due to COVID-19.

In order to mitigate risks amidst the global recession, we will adjust our one-time placement fee model to respond to the COVID-19 market realities through a subscription model:

1. ~$140 / month to IFA during the fellow’s 11-month placement (our revenue stream)

2. ~$260 / month to IFA Fellow (our fellow’s salary, which is the median salary out of college)

A one time $15 application fee paid per student to apply for IFA will also provide an opportunity to generate revenue. If students are accepted, they will not be expected to pay anything else for the program. Because our mission is to strengthen the innovation ecosystem in Nigeria, equity and accessibility are important considerations. 

For our technical barriers (predictive hiring, matching fellows with start-ups, and method of learning delivery), the Solve community provides a community of entrepreneurs who are working in good jobs and inclusive entrepreneurship who may face similar challenges. Furthermore, the MIT community is well-versed in technology to provide us a starting point in researching the most cost-effective option for when we begin to scale. Lastly, we will need initial funding for this initiative.

For our market barriers, the Solve community will provide a network of entrepreneurs that can either be guest speakers for our fellows or possible IFA partner start-ups. This would be a beneficial relationship as our trained fellows will be ready to innovate within a start-up, especially in sub-Saharan context.

Overall, as an organization that is building a community of innovators, we would like to learn and collaborate with this community of change-makers and social innovators.

Solution Technology: MIT is a hub of innovation and technology excellence. As we look to scale, our team will need to look at AI to automate our recruitment, matching, and content delivery process while still maintaining high quality. We want to partner with organizations that have experience with this technology or can provide us this technology.

Board members or advisors: Our goal is to build an organization that has the mechanism to scale and make impact in innovation throughout Nigeria and across several other countries. The Solve community has partnerships in community-driven innovation, work of the future, and inclusive innovation. 

Marketing, media, and exposure. Our goal is to partner with Solve start-ups to provide them local human capital in Nigeria. Moreover, we want start-up founders to be involved with our fellows. We already had Anjali Sastri as a guest speaker, and we envision having more from the MIT Solve community.

• Fiona Murray - Her Innovation Ecosystem course has inspired our team to create this programmatic intervention to create the next generation of entrepreneurs in Nigeria. We want to continue receiving mentorship from her and partner with REAP (Regional Entrepreneurial Acceleration Program) to identify market opportunities and continue to build our program in Nigeria. Moreover, she has expertise in how to scale through technology and innovation.

• Solver LifeBank - Temie Giwa-Tubosun is an inspiration to many aspiring entrepreneurs in Nigeria. We would like to partner with start-ups in Nigeria to bring them as guest speakers, learn about their human capital struggles, and place fellows into these innovation driven start-ups. This is also why we are interested in Solver Solar ColdHubs.

• Solver Moringa - We would love to collaborate and learn from the Moringa School so that we can collectively learn how to better promote and teach entrepreneurship.

Our mission is to strengthen the local innovation system. For the unemployed, IFA provides an opportunity to learn and practice innovation  at a start-up, equipping workers with durable and digital skills. Given job opportunities are determined by network, IFA’s selection process is more meritocratic since it lowers the barriers for the graduates to gain access to training that transforms them into innovators. 

Furthermore, IFA works to create good jobs. For start-ups, IFA provides access to talent so that they can succeed, scale, and provide more jobs. Lastly, our fellows are more likely to be entrepreneurs who will create more jobs.

We will use the funding to support our first year of 2 full cycles. Our barriers to scaling include access to technology (AI, predictive hiring, and matching programs) to recruit talented fellows into our program and then efficiently match them into start-ups. Visiting the GM headquarters will provide us an opportunity explore this. We could also discuss corporate partnership with IFA so that there can be guest speakers for our fellows to learn how to innovate within a large corporation. Furthermore, we are hiring local Nigerians, for which we will need initial funding for.