Author: Ibrahim Oguntoyinbo

A marketing communication strategist, events manager, social media enthusiast and a graphic illustrator.
uLesson logo
Aug 20

uLesson: Revolutionalizing the education sector

uLesson is an edtech startup that leverages best in class teachers, media, and technology to create high-quality, affordable and accessible education for African students.

Founded by Sim Shagaya in 2019, uLesson is now regarded as a leader in the African home-tutoring business. uLesson is available in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Sim Shagaya, uLesson founder

The uLesson app has more than 2 million downloads, with more than 12.3 million videos watched and 25.6 million questions answered on the platform.

The edtech startup is focused on delivering affordable, high-quality and accessible education using technology. Speaking in 2021, Sim Shagaya stated how the startup is deliberately looking to design products that will meet the demanded needs of users across Africa.

uLesson is viewed as the startup aimed at revolutionalising the education sector in Nigeria and Africa as a continent.

The platform currently combines the possibility to stream its classes in-app with the choice to receive those lessons on SD cards. This dual option is one big solution to the problem of frequently-unstable and comparatively costly data packages which parents usually complain of.

uLesson helps lower class African parents access world-class curriculum-based schooling that could either work alongside the day school or totally become the tutor to prepare their children for top-level exams.

Looking to gain more ground, The edtech startup has partnered with the organizers of Africa’s biggest education show, TOSSE to be the headline sponsor of the 14th edition of the event holding in September 2022.

TOSSE 2022 Speakers
Aug 18

Adefisayo, Azeez, and other distinguished guests to grace TOSSE 2022

The honourable commissioner of education for Lagos state, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo, Mrs Adeola Azeez, Dr Femi Ogunsanya and other highly distinguished guests will be at the opening ceremony of the 14th edition of the Total School Support Seminar/Exhibition.

Commissioner of Education, Lagos state

The annual program brings together key stakeholders in the education community as well as organizations creating innovative products and services for the sector.

The Total School Support Seminar/Exhibition welcomes top school owners, directors, administrators amongst other top level managers from various parts of the world. Parents and students are also a part of the event.

The 14th edition of the program is scheduled to hold on the 1st and 2nd of September at the Ten degrees event centre Oregun, Lagos.

More than 7,000 delegates from various countries are expected to attend this two day event.

The theme of this year’s TOSSE is tagged ‘Building a sustainable Education Ecosystem in Africa’.

Watch this space for more details.

Finland Speakers for TOSSE 2022
Aug 18

Education Finland to hold sessions with School owners and Consultants at TOSSE 2022

Education Finland to hold sessions with School owners and Consultants at TOSSE 2022.

Mr Peter Pertula, Director, International Partnership, TAKK Finland

The 14th edition of the Total School support seminar/exhibition (TOSSE) will host leading firms from Finland between 1st and 2nd September.

According to the programs director, Mr Ibrahim Oguntoyinbo, TOSSE is set to welcome some top companies providing innovative products and services from Finland.

Finland is reputed to have one of the best educational systems in the world and the education community in Nigeria will certainly derive a lot of benefit from the partnership.

Mr Oguntoyinbo stated that Finland representatives will be speaking during the School Business Clinic. They will also run a session by 2pm on the first day of the exhibition.

Some of the speakers expected to speak from Finland are:
Mr Peter Pertula, Director, International Partnership, TAKK Finland

Mr Alex Sointu, Business Partnership lead, Finnpartnership

Mr Patrik Bredbacka, Grants and Impact Manager, Finnpartnership.

To register for the event which is Africa’s biggest education show, click here.

uLesson
Jul 20

TOSSE 2022 welcomes uLesson as official partner

The organizers of Africa’s biggest Education event, the Total School Support Seminar/Exhibition (TOSSE) officially welcomes uLesson as a TOSSE 2022 partner.

According to the CEO of Edumark Consult, Mrs Yinka Ogunde, the partnership clearly demonstrates the commitment of uLesson towards the transformation of the Education sector across Africa.

She stated that as the leading learning App for students in the Primary, Junior and Secondary School, uLesson is adding a lot of value to the Education sector.

uLesson leverages best in-class teachers, media, and technology to create high-quality, affordable and accessible education for students. The uLesson app offers students in Primary, Junior and Senior Secondary School a holistic learning experience as well as those preparing for WASSCE, JAMB, NECO and GCE exams.

The uLesson app features over 10,000 interactive quizzes with detailed solutions; making it an excellent tool for preparing for and cracking their exams. Students can also take advantage of quality resources put together by subject matter experts to pass their exams. The app also helps students learn time management, exam formats, and accuracy skills.

Other product offerings ranging from uLesson’s education tab to its coding school will be displayed at TOSSE 2022.

The Total School Support Seminar/Exhibition( TOSSE) is an annual event that brings together key stakeholders in the Education Community.

The 14th Edition is scheduled to hold on the 1st and 2nd of September at the Ten Degrees Event Centre, Billings way, Oregun, Lagos.

To register for the event, click here.

Exhibitions stands at TOSSE
May 30

5 Steps to attract more customers to your exhibitions booth

It is said that to be outstanding, one must do things differently. This is a trait in any business/organization that is currently dominating the market, especially when it comes to exhibitions.

Perhaps, your business or organization has been exhibiting at events and have not seen the desired results on your investment there. Then it is time for a change.

As organisers of the biggest trade show in Africa with over 7000 attendees, we have listed 5 steps to help your business/organization attract more potential customers to your booth at exhibitions.

Exhibitions at TOSSE

If you want to get a good return on your investment, then you must be able to separate yourself from the crowd of other exhibitors at the event by attracting the majority of the traffic to your booth. Below are the steps to help you achieve that.

Steps to help you attract customers to your exhibition booth

  1. Create a buzz factor: One feedback every marketing executive would like to hear from customers at exhibitions is that they saw their stand and patronized them at the event. One way to maximize this is to create a social media buzz even before the exhibition day. Use your social media pages to tell your audience that you will be part of a particular exhibition and begin to warm your prospects up by showing them irresistible offers and packages you have prepared for them at the exhibitions. This way, you have aroused their interest, and they will be on the lookout for your exhibition booth at the event.
  2. Use mini-influencers: You may wonder what this means? This is basically getting your best customers or people around you with a strong following both online and offline to promote your presence at the exhibition. Remember, this is a 5-step list and they are to be followed semantically. You will be getting a customer or good friend to post something like this: “(name of product/service) has helped me develop myself in so many ways. They will be at (exhibition name), make sure you check out their stand at the exhibition”. Remember, nothing travels faster than word of mouth whether online or offline. With these testimonials, you are beginning to build the interest in your booth.
  3. Pre-event Follow-up: Before a tradeshow starts, usually, there would be a buzz weeks before and depending on the magnitude of the exhibition, people may have been posting their attendance confirmations online or offline, and this is another goldmine where you can trap leads from. One easy way to do that is to simply follow the hashtag on social media e.g #TOSSE2022, and see all the posts of people who have signaled their interest, and begin to filter them to see those that fit your customer description. Then send them personal invites and materials to educate them about your products to show that you want to see them in your booth at the exhibition.
  4. Get inbound traffic: Note that we are talking about doing things differently to attract potential customers to your booth. One of the traditional things done at exhibitions is that exhibitors get one of their staff to distribute their flyers or brochures to the attendees. This still works, but there is something better, which is using challenges, contests, giveaways, mystery games and other ideas that naturally calls people attention. People love freebies, and these kinds of things, hence increasing the amount of leads you are getting into your booth and that also increases your chances of converting them while they are inside.
  5. Post-event Follow-up: Remember, you are trying to get them to make a decision and it may not necessarily be at the exhibition, so you must follow them all through the decision making process. Get their social media handles and thoroughly check up on them to see how your products and services can help them, lookout for their needs, celebrate them on their special days and build a relationship afterwards, and you will have some become lifetime customers of your business/organization.

These are 5 steps which when followed will bring a vast amount of traffic who are potential leads that can become your customers. It may sound like a lot of work, but if you want to make sales and achieve your goals as an exhibitor, you must be ready to do this.

Don’t forget to also check out our article on how to improve your Brand presence at exhibitions.

Brand flyer
Apr 19

How to maximize your Brand presence at Exhibitions

It takes a lot of marketing efforts to sell-out innovative products/services to key decision makers in most sectors.

Event hosts will propose a value driven partnership that will offer your organisation different opportunities, but you must also know what you want to achieve with your marketing objectives.

An exhibition event

Here is a checklist to help you maximize your brand presence at exhibitions, trade shows and seminars and generate .

  1. Branding of Seminar Room: With sponsorship, your organisation has the opportunity to brand any of the seminar rooms making your brand visible to thousands of participants and other exhibitors at the event.
  2. Official Bag Branding: Your organisation’s logo on official bags to be given to all participants. The below-the-line advertising keeps your brand name in the minds of the audience.
  3. 3m by 3m Well-located Stand: Your organization should be allocated a 3 meters by 3 meters exhibition stand in a unique position that is open to the traffic of visitors and prospective clients.
  4. Presentation Opportunity: In-event speaking engagement to boost your brand equity. It is best practice to get a time slot to make a sales pitch to thousands of participants at the event.
  5. Press Conference Right: A special mention and participation at the exhibition’s press briefing will further put your brand out there to the prying eyes of the media.
  6. Ushers Branding Right: Your Company’s logo at the back of the T-Shirt of all Ushers will give your brand 360 degree awareness at the event.
  7. Pre and Post Event Advisory Service: Get pre/post event advisory services on how to better chart your path in the Education sector for greater customer conversion.
  8. Pre and Post Event Brand Publicity: Pre-event offline and online promotional campaign for brand presence at the event will drive footfall to your exhibition stand. This will create some form of familiarity between your brand and prospective clients.

Get access to over 7000 attendees at Africa’s biggest education show, register here

The list is not exhaustible but your organization can use this checklist to negotiate for the best deals that will maximize your brand presence at exhibitions which will ultimately convert to quality leads for your business.

Furthermore, organizations also need to recognize the value of leads acquired to put that information into use after events. You can read more about this here.

To exhibit at TOSSE 2022, register here to apply for stand.

TOSSE Covid-19 restriction flyer
Apr 08

TOSSE to operate at maximum capacity as FG lifts Covid-19 restrictions

In March of 2021, we called for a meeting to debate if TOSSE 2021 event should hold or not. There was a mixed feeling across the roundtable, some people expressed their fears of the federal government restrictions on numbers, while some others were optimistic and put in their vote to go on.

We had the Lagos State Safety Commission (LSC) with its Safety Marshals in charge of permit and monitoring attendees’ control to contend with, we worried about the COVID-19 scare and we also had limited time to convince stakeholders that we had put in place adequate measure to keep everyone safe and secured.

TOSSE 2021 was not just a successful event, it was an edition that reaffirmed our belief that anything is possible with the right team and the right plan.

On the 6th of April 2022, the Federal government of Nigeria lifted the restrictions on the limited numbers of persons at gatherings and the nation-wide midnight curfew imposed in 2019.

The removal of restrictions was decided in view of the declining number of cases; the reduced risk of importation of new variants, as well as the availability of vaccines. Other parts of the world are also beginning to open up to businesses, international travellers, events and tourists.

TOSSE 2022 is now open to welcome attendees from the 36 states of the federation and visitors from around the world to partake in the 20+ seminars for school owners, administrators, teachers and stakeholders in the education sector.

There will be an impressive display of innovative products/services that can positively change the way schools businesses are managed and how knowledge is delivered.

TOSSE also presents an opportunity to international and local producers/suppliers of Educational resources or solutions to meet key stakeholders in the sector for a profitable business transaction.

TOSSE offers a 5% early bird discount for exhibitors that come in before the end of April.

For more updates on TOSSE: Follow us on our social media pages below:

Like us on Facebook @Total School Support Seminar/Exhbition

Follow us on Twitter @TOSSEAFRICA

Follow us on Instagram @Tosseeducationshow

Apr 09

Creating Virtual Opportunities in Business During Lockdown

Quite a number of places had some degree of lockdown imposed on them in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has sorely affected most businesses, big or small. In a previous article, we visited the possibilities of making social media a veritable tool for your business marketing and visibility. This article will discuss important steps to digitise your business.

Working from home has gained popularity over time, however, it has been a slow process. Running a virtual business has numerous benefits, not least of which is that it costs arguably less to run. Despite reservations about the idea from many, it has become a necessity for businesses to explore this mode of running a business as the restrictions to movement lingers. The following are some steps that can be followed in creating a virtual workspace.

Create Online Awareness

This is a very obvious step, so it goes right on top. For the same reason you would expect your physical business to be known around its physical location (unless you run a shady business of course 😉), your virtual business can do with online publicity. Social media remains a primary tool for this. This space gives you visibility and engagements, as has been discussed earlier.

Social media does not do it all, though. Your business needs its own private space, space where all your offerings and information can be seen. You need an up-to-date website that is easy to navigate. Websites do not personalise your business, however. For this reason, it is encouraged to run a blog also. Blogs provide a personal feeling about your business. People are more likely to patronise you if they feel there is a person behind it and not just a “mindless bot”.

Create a Business Plan

You need to identify what your business offers in terms of goods and services – what your business CAN offer. You need also to have a clear vision and set boundaries, create an effective working process, and have realistic targets. This helps you and members of your team to be able to be effective and have the best possible ROI in the shortest possible time.

Let all employees understand how working remotely differs from working in an office environment. Be selective when picking members of your team; not all are well suited for remote assignments and not all tasks can be handled by all members of your team.

Keep the Communication Line Open

This works for both customers and employees. There should be an open channel of communication across the designated hierarchy of your organisation. All members of your team should be comfortable coming up with ideas and putting them to those higher up the ladder. This gives them a feeling of belonging and drastically improves their input as they feel like a part of the system and not a misfit.

Regular meetings should also be set up. This will help to keep tabs on the progress of the team, communicate new plans to all, and maintain a personal relationship. Virtual meetings can be held using various platforms. Popular ones include Zoom, Skype for Business, Slack, Zoho Meeting, and WhatsApp.

Measure Productivity

Your business must first and foremost be productive. So you must have set down metrics to analyse the productivity of your business. Try not to only focus on the final outcome of a particular process. Evaluate various stages of the process. Use quantifiable data to measure how well you are doing. Analyse key performance indicators (KPIs) diligently and be willing to make changes to certain areas that seem to be lagging.

For every observation, you need to be willing to train members of your team to make them improve in that area. Do not stop at measuring the team as a whole, observe individual members of the team and help any such who might be behind to keep up. Make sure to have a rewards system as well as extra motivation.

Be Realistic

It will not be easy getting used to the remote working system for sure. There might be some losses along the way, maybe more. But with proper planning and determination, a virtual workspace will yield dividends. Overall, it’ll pay off!

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