We recently got to interview Onyekachi Ginger-Eke, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of EduTech Global. She is well-known for having problem-solving capabilities, interpersonal skills, and the ability to understand the complete business scenario. Her ideas are the perfect solution for businesses to design practical solutions. Learn more about Onyekachi Ginger-Eke and her journey through this interview below!
Start Of This Journey
We were intrigued to learn about the advent of his journey that led him to his current position. So we asked, “Which career path led you to where you are today?”
She shared, “Today is a culmination of over 20 years across diverse fields. I cannot say one path has led me here. Instead, I took multiple pathways through which I gathered experience in general and strategic management, designing and deploying business and IT solutions, Human Resources, Project Management, and Business and Academic research.
Additionally, I have managed projects with global companies like KPMG, Accenture, Microsoft, Unified Payments, and Venture Garden Group across the Advisory, Business, Fintech, and Govtech sectors.
My journey as a Business/Financial Advisor and other strategic leadership positions gave me the length and breadth of experience to co-found and lead a global ed-tech company with multiple subsidiaries in multiple countries.”
Inspiration Behind This Journey
Every business gets its kickstart with the inspiration behind it. We asked, “What inspired you to develop the idea for your company?”
Onyekachi Ginger-Eke shared, “Edutech Global was founded on the need to make global education accessible to everyone. There are over 244 million out-of-school children and youths globally, with 56 million being from sub-Saharan Africa. With this alarming number, we saw the need to solve this issue, which has arisen due to people’s inability to access quality education easily.
We are keen on bridging the gap between the demand for and access to quality education regardless of location, background, or economic status. We create an equitable society and promote SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) 14 – Quality Education.”
Priorities Of The Brand
As a business owner, having priorities is a common and essential aspect. We asked, “How have your priorities in terms of business evolved since you first started?”
She shared, “Our priorities have remained the same; we are using technology to solve the issue of inaccessibility to education to students in Africa and across the globe.
We have, however, continuously evolved our technology and innovations to provide cutting-edge products and services that cater to this need, including education advisory, student counseling, e-learning management, and education financing.”
Challenges and Keys To Overcome Them
Facing challenges in the course of business is a common fact. However, how the company overcomes the challenges is what matters the most. So we asked, “What are the most challenging situations your company has overcome?”
Onyekachi Ginger-Eke replied, “As an education technology company, we rely heavily on technology to drive our solutions. Because of this, one of the significant challenges we face is the constant need for tech talent in engineering and technology.
There is also the issue of user adoption of the innovative technologies we introduce into the whole market. There is a slow but steady move from traditional learning to adopting complete or blended eLearning. Though this was fast-tracked by the advent of Covid, we are still faced with constantly evangelizing instruction design with technology.”
“What’s the key strength to overcome it?”
She further shared, “Speed and Agility, Resilience and a Never-say-die spirit. The goal and mission of the company keep us going, and we are determined to achieve them. Every team member has this same resilient spirit to overcome every daily challenge.”
Unique Features Of The Company
As a business in this competitive market, having unique features is the best option. We asked, “What makes your company stand out from all the other businesses in your industry?”
We shared, “Innovation. We are constantly innovating to ensure we meet the needs of every individual looking to acquire an education, regardless of their current academic background or financial status. We have achieved this by building unique technologies that address specific needs in the education industry.
We started first by providing education and student advisory and have developed other technologies like Apply, Studio, Ediify, and Bursary. All aim to foster our mission of making education easily accessible to everyone.
At our core, we are an innovative team, constantly introducing novel solutions to problems in the education and technology sector.”
KPIs For Measuring Success
“What KPIs do you use to measure your business success?”
She shared, “Our business success is premised on major KPIs including customer acquisition and retention, student conversion rates, employee happiness, brand recognition and reputation, the website traffic and social media engagement, Innovation and new product development, sustainability, and impact.
Each of these KPIs is vital in determining our performance and is documented daily to see where there is progress to devise a sustainable way of maintaining that progress.”
Current Services
Companies always come up with new services from time to time. We wanted to learn about the latest services available from Onyekachi Ginger-Eke. So we asked, “Tell us something about your services. What are you working on now?”
Onyekachi Ginger-Eke shared, “Our services range from providing Software as a Service to learning institutions, corporate organizations, NGOs and Government for educational purposes and other training and conferencing purposes to Student Recruitment and Advisory Services, education financing and recently instruction design, curriculum development, and delivery
We recently launched our web conferencing platform, Studio, and will deploy the mobile app for Studio in a couple of months to increase access and make available more use options.”
She further said, “To ensure everyone has access to quality education, we are currently gearing up to launch the $200,000 Bursery Scholarship Initiative for students in different African academic institutions. This is our way of giving back to society through education, and it is aimed at alleviating students’ financial burdens while pursuing their education.
We will partner with some selected African institutions to deploy the first phase of the scholarship initiative, and we are looking to partner with more academic institutions, financial institutions, and individuals to fund more students across Africa.”
Building Bond With Employees
A strong bond with employees is paramount if the business aims to succeed. We asked, “How do you build trust with your employees and boost productivity without causing burnout?”
She said, “A company’s success is tied to its team’s performance. Knowing how important it is to ensure that the team is productive, we have built a favourable work structure that allows employees the room to innovate and bring their best to the table.
Work expectations are set and communicated so each team member understands their role and responsibilities. We also use our technology to streamline creative processes, like project management software, communication, and automation tools. With this, the work is seamless, and there is no piled-up workload.
While the team must contribute to the company, it is also imperative that the company equally contributes to its growth. We provide training and development opportunities to help our employees grow. We encourage breaks during work hours to reduce burnout. Lastly, we reward hard work and encourage our employees.”
Adapting To the Latest Technologies
Adapting to new technologies is of utmost importance for boosting the success of any business. We asked, “How do you stay on top of new technologies and trends in your industry?”
She shared, “Education Technology is a continuously evolving field, and only in-depth research can keep us at the top of our business. We are constantly researching new developments and insights into the industry and looking for ways to apply this to our firm. We identify a problem in the education industry and develop unique innovations to solve these problems.
We also prioritize feedback from our customers and academic partners. This way, we can know how to improve our services and better serve them.
Lastly, we invest in our team.
Since the team drives the business’s success, we are constantly pushing our team to seek new knowledge by registering them for training and conferences and ensuring they belong to education and technology communities where we can be well abreast of what goes on in the industry.”
Advice To Beginner Entrepreneurs
“What advice would you give to starting entrepreneurs?”
Onyekachi Ginger-Eke shared, “Entrepreneurship is a journey, and every journey takes time. It would be best if you were committed to accepting that the journey will not be a one-way street and will come with setbacks and challenges, so keep a positive mind and keep going.
It is also essential to do a comprehensive study of your business. Have a complete understanding of what you are venturing into, the latest trends in your industry, what your target market is, and how you can develop new ways to solve problems.”
Connect with Onyekachi Ginger-Eke on LinkedIn.
Find EduTech Global on LinkedIn or visit https://www.edutech.global/.
