Adedayo Adegoke is the founder/CEO of Payskul, a digital platform that helps Parents and Students flexibly access low interest rates to pay tuition fees, books, uniforms, excursions amongst other school related financial demands.
He has worked with key frontend, backend and UI/UX developers to build a seamless E-Logistics Platform which was adopted by the low-class/unlearned citizens, thereby generating thousands of dollars in monthly revenue.
Adedayo Adegoke shared with Today Africa about his entrepreneurial journey.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what Payskul is all about
Adedoye Adegoke by name, the founder and CEO of Payskul. Payskul is pretty much like a school now, a Pay Later platform where parents and students can access school fees on demand and meet their financial education needs via soft loans that we provided.
And beyond that, they can flexibly access payment for books, utilities, uniforms, executions, and every financial related challenge that deals with schools alongside education insurance amongst others.
Because primarily the goal is to ensure that we are pretty much like a financial marketplace where all financial demands as regards schools can be met. So much give that financial inclusivity to ensure that students can achieve their academic goals.
Is Payskul open to everybody or is it for a particular type of people?
Our target market basically are parents and students. It’s not open to every random person. You have to be either an enrolling student or be an active student in a particular school to be able to access the loans via the platform. So we don’t do random pair to pair things. So it’s not just anybody that can come and access the financing. You have to be a student or an enrolling student.
What inspired you to start your business?
Prior to now, I was with Kobo360 and while I was on leave I happened to visit Kwara State. While I was there I engaged with the professor and he was explaining to me how over 200 students were relieved from school because they couldn’t meet their school fee payments.
Now unfortunately, some of these students were in their final year. Some Were in 400, 300 and respective levels but unfortunately they couldn’t meet their school fees. Some of them it wasn’t like they didn’t have it after all they’ve been paying these fees all along or with the assistance of their parents.
But as at that time when it was due they couldn’t meet it up and that way they were sent off school and apparently it affected them from obtaining their educational goals.
Hence why I thought that okay, what if there’s a platform where parents and students can actually access school fees on demand that is when it is due. So that their kids or the students don’t have issues obtaining their academic goals and gaining access to quality education.
These were things that I thought through and unfortunately I happened to be a victim. When I was young, while my other colleagues were writing their exams and the like, this happened to a couple of people even in the system.
So I thought about how I can bring about an innovative solution of how we can leverage technology to be able to curb this. We decided to come up with a mobile application that can actually help parents and students be able to gain access to financial loans.
And that way, they will be able to meet their financial demands in school and they will have no breach in gaining access to quality education.
Read Also: Arnold Nyendwa, the Entrepreneur Behind Africa’s First Stainless Steel Stove
What were those challenges that you faced in the beginning and how did you overcome them?
I can remember I had to struggle through management of the team. Because a couple of persons on the team were engaged and even though they keyed into the vision, but time management for them.
I struggled through managing that and at the same time, of course, capital to put better structure in place to be able to drive development and a couple of other things. But at least with the help of some people’s support, they were able to come through and overcome the challenges.
I think those are pretty much the challenges we had. Also, the database of the education system in Nigeria wasn’t centralized so we happened to have outsourced some of those data statewide which were part of the things that slowed us down that we were trying to put structure to the development of the product.
But at least we were able to gather the data in the long run and then we were able to close out our analysis before we started working on development.
How do you raise capital for your business?
I think one interesting thing that Payskul did was not to be the driver of the loan so what we literally did was to leverage on existing financial institutions. And we partnered with finance houses and banks who will be able to at least give this liquidity to service this loan while we then focus on raising our capital to be able to drive our own operations.
So fortunately we were able to get some angel investors who came on board. Their investment was part of the capital we used to develop and build to a phase where we went to live. While we leveraged on finance houses partnership to be able to drive the loans.
In fact, we have a finance house that we just closed our partnership with and gave us a facility of up to a hundred billion just to be able to ensure that these demands can be met.
So the facility is there, we just want to ensure that the customers are so comfortable to be able to access these loans. Then we can relieve the burden of parents and then students as well, go to school without being intimidated and being scared of being dropped out of school.
Do parents give something in return in order to assess this loan?
Nigeria is already building a strong structure to credit accessibility and credit analysis. So via the platform, the finance houses we actually have partnership with can be able to do their credit assessment to know who and who are eligible.
And then once that is validated, and of course, KYC included, is gonna be done. And then once that is completed, then you will be flexibly able to access this loan and at a very minimal interest rate, and be able to at least get these facilities sorted out.
It’s not a give and take thing but it’s going to be very flexible for them. Because remember, we are addressing this demand for schools. We have also factored in their academic calendar as well. As long as you’re going to be accessing this, we know that a term for primary, secondary schools is about three months.
The loan is going to be as flexible as you making the payments within the three-month timeline. Or a session which is about nine months, we have that much flexibility to be able to make the payment. So you will not be scared that their child is going to send off school within this period.
There’s not much demand, but basically, we want to have that partnership with schools so that at least we can be able to validate that these students actually belong to these schools.
That is part of the essence why we need to close out with schools and then we also aid the finance houses as well so that they can be able to at least track their repayments back to the schools.
Because these students are going to be part of these schools and regardless of whether they migrate to another school or not there will be data that shows their activities apparently.
So these are part of things we have put in place to ensure that there is no much burden on the parents. And there’s no more burden on the school but rather the flexibility is there and then the students can actually obtain their academic goals.
Read Also: How Gerald Revocatus is Making Digital Skills Accessible to African Youths
Is this loan paid to the school directly or to the parents?
Those are part of the things we have tried to ensure that this fund goes directly to the school so that it doesn’t defeat the purpose and the goal we are trying to achieve.
Because by the time we do the pair to pair transaction, and we credit individuals, before you know it, that’s when they will remember that they need to buy tomatoes and buy certain things in your houses to be able to at least sort those bills.
Also they will remember they have their rents coming up. Basically we want to ensure that students are actually relieved and able to achieve their care. And so why we are going to be, we are going to be ensuring that it’s a business to business transaction, not peer to peer.
We’re going to be remitting it directly to the school. So those are part of the reasons why we’re going to be partnering with the school so that we will be able to ensure a transaction runs like that.
What’s your business model and how does Payskul generate revenue?
Primarily we generate a revenue pretty much by service charges. Because we are creating this facility for the parents and students. We are the bridge between the finance houses and the schools and parents and students.
Hence why it’s just going to be a slight service charge which you just pay to be able to access these loans via the platform. That’s pretty much where we generate our revenues from.
Also from other services or features that we’re going to have in place because there are pretty much interesting features that over time, Payskul is going to launch strictly for parents and students.
So you have to be a parent or you have to be a student to actually be eligible. Because with time there will also be access to scholarships via our platform and there will be access to parents who will actually be able to access the closest affordable school around them.
A couple of things that we are looking at to be able to address. And with time, we are looking at a future where if your child is in school now, let’s say secondary school, and your child is still going to go to university in the future.
We’re looking at a point where your child will have to go to the university without you having to pay a dime. But this is going to be through an insurance platform we’re going to create via our platform. We want to ensure that that flexibility is there. So pretty much our revenue system is service charges that we are leveraged on to be able to give parents this accessibility.
What strategies are you using to attract and retain the client?
We launched recently, no more than two weeks ago. Our customer acquisition is still in the pipeline. Schools have shown interest already and any moment from now, we’ll begin to service them.
But strategies that have been deployed are apparently we had to push our sales team to be able to do some footwork and to be able to do some engagement on the road. Both cold outreach and warm outreach strategies were deployed.
We also utilized the mail service to be able to get mail across the schools, of which through that means they were able to show interest. Our social media platforms are open, and of course, accessibility is there. So that the public can be able to at least get visibility to what we are doing, and then be able to also reach out for partnerships and the like.
These are pretty much our strategies. We leveraged on social platforms. We also leveraged on warm and cold outages to schools, and parents forums and likewise the mail and the necessary child box will be able to drive these acquisitions.
What are your hopes and aspirations for Payskul?
Our future plans are to create an enabling environment for students to thrive. Create an atmosphere where no child is intimidated as a result of financial setbacks to be able to achieve these academic goals.
We want a future for Africa and beyond where finances will not be a setback for any child to be able to either go to a school of his choice or be limited from completing his education or being dropped out as a result of financial setback. So this is pretty much our hand pull and part of why we are driving this course.
What are some key lessons that you have learned in your journey as an entrepreneur?
I will say, even when times are tough, there’s one just to be believed because there will be times when people will let you down. There will be even people that are intimate to you or people who are just hanging around to be a benefactor of whatever you are trying to do.
At various fairs, some people will try to play along but people will let you down. But the courage for you to be able to keep striving, keep going and trying to achieve and attain your goals, it matters a lot.
I think key lessons revolved around the support I wasn’t able to get right and aside from that as well I was able to gain motivation from a couple of senior colleagues that I respect very well and they were there for me both home and abroad.
It was pretty much a tough phase but later we had some key players who also play in this space. But through the phase, I was able to see through the lens of people’s behavioral patterns and their attitudes towards you.
These were key lessons to me, and it helped me to be able to have some personal development on my own end and be able to ensure that I keep up with things and try to keep going regardless of every circumstance around.
Read Also: Myra Samuelson, the Digiteacher Helping African Educators Increase Their Income
What advice would you give to others who are just starting their business?
Just don’t give up on your dreams. Take a step after the other. Try to prioritize teamwork. Understand that you can’t do it alone. You need one or two persons who believe in you, who believe in your vision, to be able to help you achieve the goal.
So try to be a goal setter and try to ensure that you are a result oriented person, regardless of whatever comes, ensure that on a day to day basis, you are nailing something, you’re trying to achieve something, and then you keep at it.
It may take a long time, but it will surely come as long as there’s consistency, as long as the belief is there, as long as your passion is there, then it will come to pass no matter how long it may take. So believe in yourself, believe in the people that believe in you, and don’t give up.
To find out more, Adedayo Adegoke contact via:
Leave a comment below and follow us on social media for update:
- Facebook: Today Africa
- Instagram: Today Africa
- Twitter: Today Africa
- LinkedIn: Today Africa
- YouTube: Today Africa Studio
