Akowe wants to put Nigerian certificates on the blockchain

If you graduated from a Nigerian public university, getting your certificate or transcript was probably a time-consuming process, with verification taking ages.

Akowe, a startup founded by Ayodeji Agboola in 2020, wants to harness the power of the blockchain to digitize certificate issuance and verification.

Per the founder, it is a digital wallet for verified and verifiable academic records.

“In Nigeria, academic records are still manual and issued as physical documents. There are also physical processes that make it difficult to verify the authenticity of these records.

“This has led to many problems in the employment and continuing education space as many employers want to verify the authenticity of their potential employee’s credentials.”

Akowe wants to help these employers connect to verification services by connecting them to the schools’ databases. But in Nigeria, that solution is not so simple.

The idea for Akowe

What evolved into Akowe started as a digital agency in 2018. As a digital marketing professional, Agboola’s agency offered services ranging from advertising to digital marketing.

A Facebook contract to train business owners on how to use Facebook for their businesses planted the idea of ​​a digitally issued certificate in Agboola’s mind.

In the first year of training, Agboola’s agency trained 20,000 businesses in 12 Nigerian states. Issuing the Facebook certificate to 20,000 people was a challenge, but he got someone to build software that made it easy.

However, by the second year of training a new group of companies, Facebook had changed the certificate design, making certificate-issuing software redundant. Agboola again contracted a software developer to build another tool that would issue the new certificates.

After seeing how useful the tool was for certificates, Agboola saw a marketable opportunity.

“I knew three or four other Facebook partners who had the same problem. So I decided then and there to build it out. I knew at least three customers who could support this solution if I built it. And it was like it started.”

How does Akowe work?

Akowe helps teachers or platforms engaged in online training to issue mass certificates. It also allows students to verify their credentials after uploading them to the platform, while helping employers verify the credentials of a potential employee.

The startup has a web application where users can access these services. It also has a mobile app where students can upload and verify their certificates.

Akowe started by issuing bulk certificates before it included certificate verification. It was added to Akowe when HR firms and employers kept asking for the service.

From what Agboola said, building out the solution is a cumbersome process considering the bureaucratic nature of universities, especially public ones.

“We built a portal which also sits on the same platform [Akowe], which is for verification. The way it works is to get the schools on board and share revenue with schools, universities, polytechnics and other tertiary institutions.

“On the ground, we talked to many universities. We showed them the possibility and what can happen if we connect to their data, get access to search their records digitally, and then provide validated answers to people who want to verify academic records.”

Agboola added that Akowe is at the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) stage with some of these institutions as it seeks to get them on the platform.

Dealing with Nigerian Universities

Interestingly, the startup has experienced more success talking to private universities. “They’re for profit, so they understand the conversation a lot quicker,” Agboola said.

The startup is currently in talks with Baze University in Abuja and Chrisland University in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Some public universities in Northern Nigeria, such as Sokoto State University and Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, have also been surprisingly accommodating.

“Our value position for them is basically to say you don’t have to do anything. You have the records, we will build blockchain networks for you to secure that data, and in return you give us access to search those records.”

With university partnerships still in the pipeline, Akowe’s model for verifying credentials for potential hires remains largely manual.

“So some people have urgent requests, which we take on if we think we can help using our connections at some of these universities. This is very similar to what is happening right now. HR and employers need to reach out to universities or now out to people who can attend these schools and make all the necessary connections.

“The other thing we’ve done is say, ‘Hey, here’s a waiting list you can join.’ Once we get these MOUs and universities on board, you will be the first to know and test the solution. If we continue to do the manual processes, we are not bringing anything new into the system.”

Agboola believes that once the universities are on board, it will reduce the time it takes to verify records from several weeks to just seconds.

Does this solution not already exist?

The Nigeria Education Verification System (NEVS) is a verification platform created by the Federal Ministry of Education as a database containing information on students (past and present) of all Nigerian tertiary institutions.

While this could be a potential competitor for Akowe, the platform didn’t work when I tried it. Confirming this, Agboola said: “Last I checked, none of the systems are working.”

Why blockchain?

According to Agboola, the fear of being hacked is one reason why many universities do not want their certificates available digitally.

However, information stored on the blockchain is nearly impossible to hack.

When information is stored on a central system, it is vulnerable to hacks as there is only one point of attack. Once hackers can infiltrate this centralized storage system, they can easily make changes.

However, blockchain offers a decentralized storage system, and in order to make changes to the information stored on a blockchain network, each participant in that network must agree to the change.

Blockchain or decentralized storage system is a network of ledgers, as opposed to a central storage system which is only one ledger.

To change information in the single ledger system, a hacker only needs to get hold of that ledger. But with blockchain, any change must happen simultaneously across all ledgers.

Akowe’s solution will include automatically securing certificates it issues on the blockchain and also help schools put a version of all certificates on a blockchain network.

How does Akowe make money?

Training platforms that use Akowe to issue certificates to participants will purchase credits for each certificate issued. For its verification solution, it plans to use a subscription model.

“We wanted two different models, one for light users and one for heavy users. We found out from our conversations with HR and employers that these are the people who do not need to verify more than perhaps 100 people during a quarter. And those are the people who probably verify more than 100 candidates monthly. So it’s a subscription model where you pay something monthly to have constant access to search through the databases we’re connected to.”

Akowe currently has around 120 organizations from Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya using the platform to issue certificates. It also has some organizations intending to use the verification solution when it is rolled out.

The startup has gained some recognition as it was nominated by Art of Technology Lagos as one of the best edtech startups along with others such as uLesson, AltSchool and Gradely in 2022. Akowe’s vision is to become the trusted source of verified credentials in South Africa Sahara, but the bureaucratic challenges surrounding boarding at universities is something they have to find a way around.

Featured image by Freepik