Nigeria - Startup under 3 years old

Describe your project or startup in a few words

In codeplay72 we provide a digital playground for Africa's young population to develop their creative and innovative minds using digital and technological tools while connecting them to industrial mentorships which increase their future career entry.

01.01 Describe your startup in more detail

codeplay72 has designed a multimodal digital playground for Africa's young creators and innovators, this involves the use of storytelling, animations and gamification to teach future skills such as creative coding, complex problem-solving skills, collaboration and communication skills. Our approach is unique, we make proposals to schools to allow their students to have access to our playground for a maximum of 2 hours per week which will accumulate to a total of 72 hours in a year. This is at a cost of N100/hour. We have tested this playground and model with students, which has yielded success. We also provide private playground and Mini-playground with different revenue models. In Nigeria, we have over 200 million people and over 100 million are under 17 years old. Our vision is to make this younger population a powerhouse of creative innovation and technological advancement while we are also securing a future career for them with endless possibilities.

01.02 What is the main problem you are trying to solve?

UNICEF reported that 92% of future work will require digital skills. Many students in Africa, lack access to quality education that includes digital literacy, impeding their preparedness for Industry 4.0 and reinforcing educational inequalities, This skills gap hinders decent work opportunities and economic growth, leading to high youth unemployment. Additionally, the shortage of digitally skilled professionals stifles innovation and sustainable industrialization. The reality of this for parents is that while they hope that the education of their children will lead to a good future outcome the opposite has been the case as many of the children even after graduating from college are not employable dashing these parents hopes and leading them to an early grave and these children not having anything to fall back on result into social vices.

01.03 Tell us the major benefits and/or advantages of using the product/service that your startup provides (at least 3).

Our product provides a multimodal learning playground for digital skill development, this includes the use of storytelling, animation, videos and gamification to teach creative skills. Secondly, through the use of our product, each student gets access to be paired with a mentors which increase his/her chances of easy work entry. Thirdly, our product ensures that students are engaged through hands-on projects and exercises which serves as a good profile for future employers. In summary, our initiative aims to bridge this gap by providing innovative digital skill education to foster inclusive growth and innovation

01.04 Please describe who exactly your startup’s product/service is aimed at serving. Who are the targeted beneficiaries?

Our products are designed for children between the ages of 6 to 18 years old while our primary targets are schools and parents.

01.05 When was your company established?

2023-07-17

01.06 Are you already selling your product/service?

Yes

01.07 How many other owners are there within your startup?

3

01.08 Among the other owners, how many are female?

1

01.09 Please describe the profile of the other owners within your startup (skills, experience, etc.)

All key members of codePlay72 are graduates of Engineering majors with an average of 4 years in the industry or Academia. The following names are key members of our team: 1. Paul Michael Odebode (CEO): Graduate of Computer Science and Engineering. Possess experience in Startup creation and leadership, AI/ML, Data Science, Software Engineering, and DevOps. 2. Mercy Oyelude (COO and CTO) Passionate and dedicated entry-level front-end developer with a rich background transitioning from roles as a customer relationship manager, leveraging expertise in growth marketing and sales management, and as an ICT administrator & educator in classroom management, school software management and mentorship. 3. Olugbade Temitayo (Lead Designer) He is a profoundly enthusiastic and committed expert, deeply fascinated by computer innovation and technology. With a comprehensive background spanning seven years, with extensive proficiency in design and product development.

01.10 If you have a website, a social media page (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin…), or app, please provide the link(s) here:

https://www.codeplay72.com/ , Facebook https://www.facebook.com/codeplay72/ , Twitter https://twitter.com/codeplay72?s=09 , Instagram https://www.instagram.com/codeplay72?r=nametag , LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/codeplay72/

01.11 Which industry best describes your project?

Other: Information Technology and Education

02.01.01 My startup contributes to the No poverty goal

6

02.01.02 No poverty - Justification for my startup

codeplay72 aligns with no poverty by providing critical skills and knowledge that enable individuals to improve their economic prospects, fostering entrepreneurship, reducing urban-rural disparities, promoting lifelong learning, and ensuring inclusive access to educational resources. These factors collectively contribute to breaking the cycle of poverty and promoting sustainable economic growth.

02.02.01 My startup contributes to the Zero hunger goal

5

02.02.02 Zero hunger - Justification for my startup

What creates hunger in Africa is not the absence of food but its distribution and lack of management, with technological innovation, all of these can be greatly reduced which will lead to a more productive farming system and likewise effective distribution of the produce. And hence,

02.03.01 My startup contributes to the Good health and well-being goal

6

02.03.02 Good health and well-being - Justification for my startup

We stated above that many parents after investing into their children education get disappointed at the outcome which leads them to their early graves as well as having young adults who are supposed to be gainfully employed roaming the streets or engaging in some social-vices. With our products and services, we are creating a prosperous community where even the disadvantaged gets to flourish, gainfully employed and contributing his/her quota to the national income which will promotes good health and well-being for all.

02.04.01 My startup contributes to the Quality education goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.04.02 Quality education - Justification for my startup

Quality Education is a gateway to endless possibilities, our products and services provide easy of learning through multimodal approaches which make it easy for students to learn better by choosing the learning methods that best fit them. We are providing each of these learners access to what may be considered distant or unpopular in their locality bridging the gap of space and time as well as providing them with tools and platforms that gives them access to continue their learning at any point in time.

02.05.01 My startup contributes to the Gender equality goal

6

02.05.02 Gender equality - Justification for my startup

Our products and services empower girls with knowledge, skills, and opportunities that foster gender equality. We are not just for the boys we encourage girl child to take part in STEAM programs as well through outreaches that promote gender quality because we see a much brighter future when the girl child is empowered.

02.06.01 My startup contributes to the Clean water and sanitation goal

6

02.06.02 Clean water and sanitation - Justification for my startup

"Israel has made significant strides in wastewater recycling, treating and recycling 86% of its wastewater for agricultural operations in 2015. The goal is to recycle 95% of wastewater for agriculture by 2025" We see Israel as leader in this water sector and one thing that has driven this advancement is the innovative landscape in Israel, we believe that digital education has that same power to ensure availability of sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

02.07.01 My startup contributes to the Affordable and clean energy goal

4

02.07.02 Affordable and clean energy - Justification for my startup

we contribute to the use of clean energy through the use of recycled batteries for most of our laptops and we.

02.08.01 My startup contributes to the Decent work and economic growth

7 - Strongly Agree

02.08.02 Decent work and economic growth - Justification for my startup

In the past 10 years, we have seen careers relating to coding or complex problem-solving ranking top for employers and this trend has not changed as more data roles are opening in companies that want to be at the forefront of their industry. What this translates to is decent work for students who get to prepare themselves for this future and our products and services is doing just that and we believe that this will in turn bring about an economic growth for the whole community to flourish.

02.09.01 My startup contributes to the Industry innovation and infrastructure

7 - Strongly Agree

02.09.02 Industry innovation and infrastructure - Justification for my startup

UNDP reported that 14.6% of Nigerians are underbank while 36.8% are unbanked. Digital skills such as programming and coding have a strong impact on developing industries like the financial industry with innovative solutions at scale instead of using the traditional approach, we see this in the continent as more finTech solutions are springing up to help solve the problem of innovation in this sector.

02.10.01 My startup contributes to the Reduced inequalities goal

6

02.10.02 Reduced inequalities - Justification for my startup

In September 2023, some of our students took part in an Innovation challenge organized by Harvard CS50, after the solving all problems sets they emerge as part od the top winners and got the prestigious Harvard

02.11.01 My startup contributes to the Sustainable cities and communities goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.11.02 Sustainable cities and communities - Justification for my startup

After graduating from one of the best universities in the country and having experience in the innovation and startup world, I asked myself how can I give back to my community and the answer today is codePlay72, I started a small program with 10 students in a small sitting room where I teach these younger ones creative computing every Friday evening

02.12.01 My startup contributes to the Responsible consumption and production goal

5

02.12.02 Responsible consumption and production - Justification for my startup

When we started the startup we had it as part of our plans to help students who can not afford to pay with cash pay with PET bottles, but this was put on hold because of the human resources that are needed to keep part of that management running, we hope this will be soon as we still have many students who can not afford and access our programs because of financial challenges. We are therefore of the mind that, implementing this very support for the students will bring about responsible consumption and production in our cities which will impact the continent of Africa at large.

02.13.01 My startup contributes to the Climate action goal

2

02.13.02 Climate action - Justification for my startup

Our startup has not been looking into this area of the SDGs

02.14.01 My startup contributes to the Life below water goal

2

02.14.02 Life below water - Justification for my startup

Our startup has not been looking into this area of the SDGs

02.15.01 My startup contributes to the Life on land goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.15.02 Life on land - Justification for my startup

It will interest you to know that the indigobird can only be found in Jos Plateau State, I personally did not know about until one of our students builds a website to showcase birds are in danger of going into extinction. This is a good example of how our startup in contributing to life on land through social projects that can inform the the communities about the dengers that are posed to the beautiful nature around us.

02.16.01 My startup contributes to the Peace Justice and Strong Institutions goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.16.02 Peace Justice and Strong Institutions- Justification for my startup

In Jos Nigeria, the city has constantly undergone periods of crisis which has led to social divides our startup is therefore not affiliated with any geopolitical organization as a way of promoting peace and justice with a strong institution

02.17.01 My startup contributes to the Partnerships for the goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.17.02 Partnerships for the goal - Justification for my startup

To this end, we believe we align to the SDGs goals and we are taking this seriously in our local communities as a way of contributing to the global landscape and sustainability of the human race. We are, therefore, using digital education and innovation as a tool for global sustainability while working locally with global mindsets.

06.01 There are a large number of customers who already use a product/service very similar to the product/service we envision creating.

5

06.02 The product/service represents an entirely new type of product/service.

5

06.03 The product/service could be described as a new technology.

6

06.04 The product/service is an improvement on an existing product or service.

6

06.05 The product/service could be described as an extension of a range of products or services.

5

06.06 The product/service responds to a demand or need that has not been satisfied by other products/services.

6

06.07 The product/service is a new version of an old product/service.

5

06.08 Justification for my startup

We agree that there are similar products out there however our approach is that of bringing this product home and accessible to the young Nigerian students who may not have the opportunities and the financial constraints digital technology and innovations come with as we as the lack of trained personnel to teach him or her the skills needed for the future of work. Our solutions first build a digital playground and give access to all students to follow digital skill paths that are tailored to their level and after that link them up with industrial mentorship. What we have seen so far are blended classroom but not multimodal classrooms we hope to bring this into our product soon.

06.09 Competitive Analysis

At this point, traditional schools are our major competitors because we target the same customers, however we understand that the use of technology gives us a leverage to reach hundreds of students with the same product which they don't have. Also, big tech companies have the potential of making our products obsolete within a short period of time, however working locally has helped us build resilience against this possibility. We also have other companies building similar products such as Ulesson, Myclass, Juliet AI, and Rubbies Technologies however while they focus on the teaching aspect we build products and we also create a database to showcase our students for opportunities in the industry.

11.05 Are you initiating actions within your community to promote the role of female entrepreneurs?