During a recent visit to Tanzania, we visited some of our growth programmes for an extensive interview with their founders about the company, their lives and entrepreneurship in their country.

From the heart of Arusha, Tanzania, Smartcore Enterprise Limited is spreading quality education throughout the country. Their focus on educational technology drove them to create a digital learning platform and easy to use apps for both students and teachers. This way, even students in the most marginalised communities can have access to quality education, needing only a computer and the will to learn. Smartcore employees travel all throughout the country to onboard learners, and the company collaborates with teachers and universities to offer the best education possible.

Part 1: the work

Can you tell me a bit more about Smartcore?

George Akilimali: We are an education technology social enterprise, mostly focused on secondary school students between the age of 14 and 17. We created a platform which allows them to access digital learning resources anytime and anywhere. These learning resources come in the form of videos, animations and interactive quizzes. I cofounded Smartcore in 2017, a few years after I graduated from university. Today, we are working with different stakeholders; government schools, private schools, the Tanzanian government, corporations and even multinational organisations help us bring this innovation to life. 

What inspired you to choose this as your business?

George: It all started when I was in secondary school. We had some challenges: there were no teachers for some of the core subjects, we didn’t have a school library, we didn’t have access to computers, ... challenges which were present in most of the public schools. I couldn’t find any resources for learning. That’s where I started thinking we could do something about this. Back then I had no idea how, I thought maybe I could do something with technology, around transforming education and improving the access and quality of education. That’s what drove me. I went to university to study ICT, where I immediately realized I could use technology to solve the issues I identified around 12 years ago.

Have you seen a lot of impact since Smartcore was founded? 

George: Since we were founded in 2017, our innovation, our product, our solution has reached more than half a million learners. This is the real recorded impact of what we have been doing. We have seen students improve their grade by almost 80%. We’ve seen teachers who have been using our resources to help students understand difficult concepts. We have seen students who actually changed their interest from art subjects to science subjects, which has not been happening the past few years. The impact is there and visible. It has been growing and still is, and we are happy to see that.

Have there been any big achievements in the history of your company? 

George: I think there are two important things. First of all the impact: our goal has been to reach as many learners as possible across the country and beyond. Seeing that we have reached over half a million learners already, and are going to reach almost a million in the next two years, is a big achievement for us. Apart from that, our biggest achievement has been the partners. We’ve managed to formulate a pipeline of more than 20 credible partners, both local and international, and I think that has been one of the biggest advantages to allow us to scale everything we’re doing. 

What are you most proud of?

George: I think what I'm most proud of is our team. They’re doing amazing work. They’ve been doing a lot of field work, which is difficult sometimes. They’re going to very remote areas with no access to power or internet. Most of the field work involves going outside to the schools where the students actually are. As a social enterprise, one of our visions is to reach the marginalized communities. Sometimes we go to the most rural areas to make sure that people can use our platforms. Of course everyone asks: if you’re going to a rural area, how are people going to use your technology? One of the biggest features is that our platform works offline. It doesn’t matter if you have internet, as long as you have one computer and maybe one projector, students can learn through our platform. A lot of our employees have been trying to make students understand how they can leverage the platform to grow, academically but also concerning life skills. We also train teachers on how they can use the platform to teach the students. At the same time, our employees engage the local government’s stakeholders to ensure they understand what the possibilities are when they use our platform. They make sure that everybody in the ecosystem understands what is happening.

What are your ambitions and long term goals for the company?

George: Our direct vision is to reach around ten million learners across sub-saharan Africa. Right now, we are primarily working in Tanzania, but we have started exploring Kenya, Uganda and even Rwanda, figuring out how we can scale our innovation towards these markets. Toward that, we believe that we always need to keep growing in terms of impact, but also in terms of revenue. We are a social enterprise, but we operate as a for profit social enterprise. We try to make sure we can reach as many students as possible so we can have as big an impact as possible on education, while at the same time generating employment to make sure that everyone can grow and create even more impact.

Part 2: Exchange and life

What has your experience with Exchange been like?

George: I heard about Exchange almost two years ago. Last year, somebody who worked for Exchange in Tanzania reached out to me and asked me if I was interested in an upcoming opportunity. I applied, after which I met some amazing people. I remember the first intake with the director of Exchange; I learned more about what Exchange does and it was eye-opening to see what we can mean for each other. Next, one of the volunteers visited and created a very interesting report on what Smartcore does and how we do it. They included all the areas we need to improve on. That gave me a clear picture of how to move forward. We identified a lot of areas for improvement, including marketing, strategy, and even the tech itself. Now I’m looking forward to meet more experts and keep working with Exchange.

Can you tell me a bit more about yourself?

George: I’m a social entrepreneur, a fun guy, but also a father of three kids. I’m really passionate about impact, especially in education. While Smartcore has only been registered for the last 7 years, I’ve been doing this for almost 14 years now. It's part of who I am. I’m also a university graduate, so I hold a bachelor’s degree in ICT and management. 

What inspires you in life?

George: Seeing the impact we are generating always inspires me. It doesn’t matter if it’s in education, technology or any other social innovation or community development issue: I always get inspired when I see something is changing in our community. For me, that’s what makes me wake up in the morning and say ‘I need to go to work’. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing, as long as it’s creating impact, it’s amazing for me. My family inspires me as well; I spend most of my free time with them and we watch a lot of movies together. 

Part 3: entrepreneurship and Tanzania

How do you look at entrepreneurship and business in Tanzania? 

George: If you asked me that question a few years ago, I would have said that we are too early for the Tanzanian market. Everybody said that the ecosystem is not growing, but now I think it's growing rapidly. There's a lot of organisations supporting entrepreneurship and you can see many innovations. A few years ago, there were only 2 or 3 educational technology companies, but now I can mention about 15 from the top of my head. The ecosystem itself has been growing a lot, and a lot of youth have been engaging in entrepreneurship and innovations. That for me has been one of the biggest evolutions. This is also supported by the government, which has been doing a lot of work in terms of trying to put forward some policies which are encouraging entrepreneurship and innovations in all sectors. 

Do you feel supported by the government to build the company of your dreams?

George: Not 100%, but yes. We have been working with the government in different senses, from the minister of education all the way to other institutions like the commission for ICT and universities, which are publicly owned. We have been working with all kinds of government entities, but of course there’s always a lot to be done by the government. I can confidently say we are supported , though there's room for improvement. 

What improvements do you look forward to in the next few years?

George: As I mentioned, the government has been organising a lot of initiatives to strengthen entrepreneurship. Somebody in the government is now actually working on the Tanzanian Startup Act to support a lot of innovations. They’ve been re-evaluating the investment terms for external investors who are coming to invest in the startup ecosystem. I think that in the next five to ten years, these things will be materialising. The startup ecosystem will grow quickly and because of this, the investment landscape will be stronger as well. One of the things which has been happening in the country is the government trying to re-evaluate the ICT policy, including things like privacy and data policy, but also investment in the ICT sector. The technology sector has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the country, together with the educational part of it. The government is now figuring out how they can use technology to deliver quality education across the country, which is perfect for us.  

What do you like most about Tanzania?

George: The people. Even here in Arusha, you can just move around without knowing anybody. You'll realize that everybody will be friendly and will want to talk to you. People will greet you even if they don’t know you. That’s the spirit we have as a people and part of what makes Tanzania amazing.