By Elizabeth Osayande

The Kogi government has said that it is currently exploring a potential partnership with educational technology firm, Edves, alongside leading private schools in Lagos state, to achieve a robust 10-year plan for human capacity development in the state.

This was disclosed by the Special Adviser Kogi State Governor on economy, finance, and investment, Mr. Abdulkareem Siyaka during a guided tour of three schools in Lagos recently that included: Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Divine Offspring Primary School, and Dansol High School, all in the Ikeja area of Lagos State.

In his words, “Kogi state currently offers free education from basic to secondary school level in Kogi state. We do not plan to stop at that, how do we sustain it? Who are those that will partner with us to make it work? What technology will drive it? That is why we are engaging Edves.

“With about 75% of our population consisting of young people primarily engaged in basic, secondary, and tertiary education, we recognize that the quality of education they get would influence our state’s future.

“We have over 2000 public schools in Kogi state, and about 45% of them are unity schools. We have over 800,000 youths who require skills to become more useful in the workplace, and we want to invest in training facilitators, curriculum development, staff hiring, and internet connection, and all of these involve cost.

“This is why we are actively seeking strategic partnerships and resource providers, with a strong focus on sustainability to drive long-term productivity within the framework of our 10-year plan.

“By the end of next year, we plan to have a tertiary vocational institute, where candidates will be trained in bricklaying, trading, plumbing, painting, and other entrepreneurial skills. There are three senatorial districts in Kogi state, and we plan to have one institute in each of the districts,” he stated.

Speaking to newsmen during the tour, co-founder and COO, Edves, Mr. Dare Adebayo, who founded the company with co-founder and CEO Dimeji Falana, shared the vision and progress of his team, including the reasons for the partnership with states in Nigeria, with Kogi state being the first to show interest in their product.

“We are currently in the process of establishing a partnership with the Kogi state government. This trip serves as a due diligence effort to confirm Edves’ existence as a company. It also allows us to engage with our existing customers, gaining firsthand insights into the value our platform provides to their educational institutions.”

“At present, we serve more than 1,600 schools across 10 African countries, and this year, we’ve begun onboarding schools in the UK. Our core mission is to empower schools with technology, enabling them to operate more efficiently and enhance their teaching, learning, and administrative processes.

“Again, one of our key objectives for this year is to collaborate with the public sector. Historically, we have primarily worked with private schools. While we are currently conducting pilot tests with around 20 government schools, we believe that our successful track record with private institutions positions us to replicate this success in public schools.

“We have developed an executive dashboard that will enable government officials, such as the Governor, Commissioner, Minister of Education, or even the President, to access real-time information from their desks. This includes data on student attendance in specific local governments on a particular day, as all schools will be marking attendance. It allows monitoring of students’ presence and their coursework, identifies areas where students may be struggling, tracks the number of teachers in schools, and provides a comprehensive overview of students’ academic performance weekly.”

The schools visited shared positive experiences of using technological tools provided by Edves for their smooth running.