CEO Uyi Edigin Opens up About Traindemy and the Unique Advantages it Offers Nigerians

If you’re a frequent social media user, you may have heard of Udemy or seen their adverts online. You have probably taken a course or two from their platform. Well then, you probably have a fairly good idea of what Traindemy is all about.

Traindemy is an online learning platform that has been designed specifically for Africans that are within the middle to low income range. Like most online study platforms, users can register and have access to a wide array of courses that they can purchase and learn from at their own pace.

First, a little background about Traindemy.

In the very interesting and enlightening chat that I had with the co-founders, I understood that Traindemy was founded in 2018 by Uyi Vincent Edigin and Tijani Aniwura as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) respectively. They were later joined by Tolu Adegoke, co-founder and Chief Operations Officer (COO).

“There is skill gap problem, people do not readily have access to self reliant and in-demand skills.”

Tolu Adegoke
Chief Operations Officer of Traindemy

Last year, Traindemy was selected for an acceleration program by South African accelerator, Injini. This brought about a turnaround and whole new focus for the entire business model.

“We moved from being just a platform for freelancer craftsmen to being a marketplace for vocational and technical schools,” Uyi said.

“Picture Coursera for Technical and Vocational Schools in Africa. In addition, we improved the experience of the Schools. Now, all schools get a custom domain with the format: schoolname.traindemy.com.”

So, what’s really special about Traindemy?

I asked Uyi this particular question and listened as he passionately narrated the unique advantages of Traindemy to me.

“Learners on Traindemy have access to quality training because they’re not just learning from freelancers or average craftsmen, they’re learning from the best vocational and technical schools or Master Craftsmen.

“Also, because we’re learner-centric, we make provision for the practical aspects by providing them access to tools, materials and equipment near them.”

Good products sometimes become generally unaccessible due to exorbitant pricing. I wanted to know if that is the case with this startup so I asked how affordable courses are for the average Nigerian.

Not only are courses affordable, they are also flexible. This means that people can purchase parts of a course that they urgently need and can pay for and still get certified.

“Our target audience are average and low income people so we make sure courses are discounted considerably and broken down into short courses to allow flexible payment,” Uyi said.

“For each part, they get certificates of completion but when they finish up the entire curriculum, they get the main professional certificate endorsed by the school.”

I registered on the platform so I can relate my experience to you. It turns out that after a simple registration you can start accessing courses. They even give you a free course for starters.

To deliver a quality service to users the startup has to leverage on tech. I asked how the startup intends to leverage technology in its operations. Uyi replied that tech would be leveraged in the following areas:

• User Experience (Ease of downloading videos, size compression without great loss of quality)
• Go Live feature
• Use shortcode technology for inclusion of rural areas

According to the team, the learning platform has recorded 200% growth rate month on month in the number of users learning on the platform. The startup is on the brink of expansion and is looking to raise $100,000 seed funding to scale up its product.

“We are currently looking to raise $100K seed to scale operations and improve the platform further.”

Uyi Vincent Edigin

Since Injini, Traindemy has evolved, partnering with centers for vocational learning so that students can practice with equipment like sewing machines at Traindemy approved workshops. They also provide offline training if online does not work for any student.

With a model like Udemy, and an even more flexible payment plan designed for low-income earners, Traindemy could help cut down the numbers of unskilled and unemployable individuals in our vastly-populated Africa.