Tope Ogunsemo is a 33-year-old Nigerian entrepreneur who founded Krystal Digital Networks – an educational technology company that develops and deploys customized and service-oriented software applications.
In today’s digital world, data is golden, and the more institutions tap into gathering and utilizing data for improvement and progress, the better for them. Anyone who attended a government-owned school in Nigeria is aware of how difficult it is to get your certificates, transcripts, or somethings as little as a signature on your document. This experience drove Temitope to proffer solutions to solve this growing problem. Ogunsemo founded the company from his personal savings in 2010 and it has since grown to one with an annual revenue of $3 million (over a billion Naira).
Tope Ogunsemo was recently asked about the vision behind Krystal Digital’s operations, and he had this to say. “The idea to establish Krystal Digital spawned from a difficult experience I had when I attempted to secure my academic transcript. It was then I saw the potential to develop a school information management system that would not only improve the storage and retrieval of academic records but would also position these schools to harness the benefits of digitization.”
The company’s first product – MySkool Portal, is a web-based application for School Information Management System designed for proper storage and documentation of school data. Today, MySkool Portal Platform has currently been adopted by more than 50 Government-owned High schools in Nigeria and has more than 65,000 active student users.
As the need to actualize the transformation desired in Nigeria’s education sector becomes inevitable, Temitope Ogunsemo has invested up to $1 million building digital IT academies across various secondary schools across Nigeria and is also working in partnership with Microsoft to teach Nigerian students Microsoft Professional Program courses.
From an estimated 42.5 million people at the time of independence in 1960, Nigeria’s population has more than quadrupled to 186,988 million people in 2016 (UN projection). The United Nations anticipates that Nigeria will become the third largest country in the world by 2050 with 399 million people.
Below is a statistic provided by UNESCO on Nigeria’s education system;
source: UNESCO
Over 40% of the Nigerian population are within school age which indicates a unique and massive business opportunity for solutions targeted at improving the quality and processes of the educational system. The educational industry in Nigeria is ripe for more initiatives similar to Krystal Digital Networks.
What are you waiting for?
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. – Harriet Tubman
