‘Pandemic transitioned physical learning to digital platform’

Chibuikem Nwani is the Chief Executive Officer of Alula Learning, a digital learning and development platform. In this interview by KOLA MUHAMMED, he speaks on his digital outfit, the impact of COVID-19 on start-ups and how individuals and corporate bodies can leverage on technology to boost productivity.

COVID-19 pandemic happened last year but you started Alula way before then. Did you have the nudge that a pandemic was coming or what inspired you to start a digital learning and development platform?

Just like the rest of the world, we had no nudge or even any type of feeling that a pandemic was coming. The inspiration for Alula was birthed not just by me, I and my partner Kokoma Brown had always wanted to positively impact the learning and development space. At the time, we worked in different organisations but we both had the same challenges with how training was being delivered and what training should be like in this modern world of Information Technology. Those challenges were what inspired us to start an organisation to tackle those problems.

For a digital start-up like yours, the pandemic would have been a blessing in disguise. How would you quantify the blessing of a pandemic to your business growth or has it been business as usual?

A blessing in disguise actually, but then even a blessing has its own challenges, that are the same way the pandemic came with its own challenges. The first challenge was organisations cutting down on training budgets, this is because it was a new change that “just happened”, a lot of organisations didn’t have the right change structure to handle it, so it took a while and it’s still taking a while for organisations to adjust. However, the biggest blessing was not for Alula Learning alone, it was for all digital-based organisations. Our services have been more in demand ever since, we even have markets that weren’t our target come to us. This was not so before the pandemic, so yes, we have grown in visibility and publicity.

What’s the idea behind the choice of the name ‘Alula’ for your business?

My partner, Kokoma Brown, is an expert with names. She came up with the name ‘Alula’ which is Arabic for ‘first leap’. Alula Learning means the first leap to learning, or should I say e-learning.

Your business has grown significantly over the past two years. What are the biggest lessons you have learnt during this period?

One should focus on providing solutions. One question we always ask as an organisation is “what are the problems for our stakeholders and clients?” This question helps us to always be on the lookout for innovative ways to stay ahead, and we are also solving the problem, which is the most important thing.

Have you been affected by any of these regulations and how would you react?

Thankfully, we haven’t been hit with some of these regulations. My reaction to these extreme policies has always been mixed emotions over different situations. My advice to the government is to take it easy with the youth and build a Nigeria that is proud of her youth any day, anytime. As for the youths contributing their own quota to reduce the unemployment rate, please do not stop being innovative and keep trying to solve as many problems as possible.

What would the ideal enabling environment in Nigeria for you look like?

I’ll classify the ideal enabling environment in Nigeria into 3As; Access, Accountability and Action-Oriented. We can unpack these 3As into sub levels. If entrepreneurs have Access to funding, learning materials, mentors etc., things would become easier. Also, if the government is more Accountable, issues around corruption would be limited or eliminated. Being Action-oriented is as simple as it is; we need people that will put in the work, either as entrepreneurs or as government officials.

You recently launched a new product, Hekima. What should users of your platform expect from it?

As we already know, Alula Learning is all in for solving problems as regards Learning and Development. We started trying outHekima sometime in 2019 and one thing has been in our mind ever since then, that is making learning accessible to all at an affordable rate. Interestingly, the pandemic made it more obvious the reason a platform like Hekima was needed, and as soon as possible. Hekima is a platform for trainers, instructors and facilitators of organisations or even individuals, to host their training and programs at little to no cost. Our platform started operations this January and is open to anyone who wants to host their program or training online.

Our platform has the necessary tools needed to host proper virtual training. Its features include a friendly ui/ux experience, calendars and notification, analytics/reporting, learning path, assessments engine, content scheduling, content friendly and gamification. It is available 24/7, has pause/resume activity, downloadable certificate, multiple device compatibility and multi-lingual capabilities.

How has your background/growing up shaped your entrepreneurial journey so far?

I would say it shaped everything about the journey. I am also blessed to have a partner that shares similar personal values and business values.My parents live a life of principle and values, and I sort of just mirrored that. The most important of them all is the value for continuous learning and active listening; this has helped us listen to the people we serve as an organisation, and also helped us to keep innovating and improving our products and services to suit the needs of our clients.

There are many youths who wish to turn the ideas in their head into tangible platforms. What’s your advice for those looking to explore the digital economy like you?

Start! You can’t be anything if you don’t start. You start, then you adjust and change as you move. Starting is usually the hardest part, once you start, just keep going and try to learn along the way and improve as well.

What are your projections for Alula in the coming years?

We want to be seen as thought leaders when it comes to digital learning and everything around providing solutions for the online learning market. We keep churning out off-the-self courses to increase our library of interactive, relevant and localized eLearning contents. While we continue with our core services of developing and designing bespoke eLearning contents, we also place ourselves as solution providers, by looking out for learning and development challenges and bringing solutions to them. And just as we have started with Hekima, we will keep our heads out there for other challenges.

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