Olamide Balogun

Nigerian edtech pioneer democratizing STEM education for 1 million African students

Olamide Balogun is revolutionizing education access through his startup STEMify Africa, which has provided STEM education to over one million students across 15 African countries. Launching in 2015 from Lagos, his platform uses AI-driven learning modules delivered via solar-powered tablets to schools lacking basic infrastructure. This approach has achieved 300% improvement in math scores among students in Nigeria's northern regions.

Balogun's breakthrough came with the 2020 launch of the 'Code Africa' initiative, training 50,000 teachers in digital pedagogy. His partnership with UNICEF expanded the program to refugee camps in Chad and South Sudan, reaching displaced children previously excluded from formal education. In 2022, he introduced the first continent-wide AI competition for African students, attracting 200,000 participants to solve local challenges like malaria prevention and crop yield optimization.

His innovative funding model combines blockchain-based donations with revenue from corporate training programs. This allowed STEMify Africa to become self-sustaining by 2021, reinvesting profits into building 50 rural innovation hubs. Balogun's work has been recognized by the African Development Bank, which partnered with him to create a $50 million education innovation fund.

Despite Nigeria's poor education rankings, Balogun's graduates now hold 40% of tech sector jobs in Accra and Nairobi. His vision of 'education as infrastructure' has inspired similar models in India and Southeast Asia. A 2023 MIT study credited his methods with closing 60% of the STEM skills gap in participating regions.