Etornam Fianoo-Vidza is making language learning more accessible to Africans, one speaker at a time

Two years in the past, Etornam Fianoo-Vidza, a French and Spanish trainer, set out to study Swahili. She anticipated to discover an abundance of learning supplies on-line, on condition that Swahili is probably the most spoken language in Africa, however she was incorrect. After making an attempt out completely different websites and apps, she discovered most of their instructing strategies ineffective. Here, Etornam noticed a hole to be stuffed, and he or she determined to start instructing languages on-line. This ultimately led to the delivery of her language-learning startup, Spiika.

Unlike different language learning apps that supply solely textual content and audio classes, Spiika goes a step additional and presents its customers stay interactive classes with tutors, participating actions and video classes, and a neighborhood of learners to work together with on-line.

TechCabal spoke to Etornam about Spiika and what it’s like working an edtech startup in Ghana.

TechCabal: Did you at all times need to construct a startup or did Spiika simply occur alongside the best way?

Etornam Fianoo-Vidza: I really like languages, basically, I’ve a ardour for languages. I communicate 5: English, French, Spanish, our native language right here in Ghana, Twi, and Swahili. I’ll be including German and Chinese to that checklist very quickly. I’m simply a language fanatic, and rising up, I knew that I wished to do one thing with my love for languages and make one thing out of it. I even have at all times beloved enterprise, so at one level, I simply determined to align my love for languages with my love for enterprise by beginning a language college.

I’ve a Masters in Teaching French as a Foreign Language from the University of Arizona, and after I returned to Ghana, I began to train French. However, I discovered that native African languages additionally wanted to be taught and so I integrated them and took it on-line. The present platforms had solely phrases and AI voices in overseas accents had been saying these phrases, which I discovered appalling. At that time, I made a decision that we might work on serving to folks throughout Africa study native languages alongside overseas languages.

TC: What does Spiika do in another way from the common language courses taught at Ghanaian secondary colleges?

EFV: Language is probably the most studied topic space in Africa however whereas college students are taught overseas languages like French—which is obligatory—they find yourself not remembering something as quickly as they depart college. This is primarily a results of the best way they’re taught. Our colleges right here use a very mechanical and rule-based strategy, and that doesn’t yield long-term outcomes because it’s not sensible. From my expertise instructing French within the United States as a instructing assistant, I noticed how folks reply to completely different methodologies. With language learning, interplay is key, and expertise is an vital device in facilitating this. It’s essential for us to transfer away from the normal classroom-based mechanical approaches to incorporating actually diversified methodologies that spotlight human interplay.

You can use word-based platforms to study, which is able to train you vocabulary and customary expressions, however until you might be interacting, you’ll stay the identical and ultimately even overlook what you’ve discovered. Our app now does three issues: stay interactive classes with tutors, participating actions and video classes, and a neighborhood of learners to work together with on-line. The human part will get folks to progress quicker.

TC: What does it take to efficiently run an edtech startup in Ghana? 

EFV: The very first thing to come to thoughts is grit; grit and perseverance. The ardour is actually what has to drive you. Passion for what you do and fervour to hold learning, as a result of as a founder you may have to be keen and ready to study issues on the go in addition to be adaptable and open to change. When I began Spiika, I didn’t begin with any official enterprise background, no MBAs or something, my background was simply languages. Once I began, I had to start attending a lot of enterprise workshops and studying books, simply to sustain. Running a startup in Ghana takes a lot of grit, perseverance, and willingness to study.

TC: What are a number of the challenges that you simply’ve confronted in constructing Spiika?

EFV: One of the challenges we’ve confronted is expertise. As we develop, we’d like to make use of even more folks to fill more roles which has been a little bit of a problem. Really good expertise comes with actually good cash and typically we’re not essentially ready to afford that.

Another problem that we’ve confronted is funds. Because our providers are on-line and cater to folks internationally, receiving funds from completely different international locations may be a problem. We have a lot of fintechs however I nonetheless assume that there’s more that may be achieved by way of simplifying funds between African international locations. We’ve had situations of customers from different international locations having issue with funds as a result of they’d a lot somewhat use easier switch strategies than playing cards.

Fintech in Ghana is additionally not as superior as in different international locations, Nigeria for instance. 90% of our shoppers in Ghana pay utilizing the Mobile Money possibility, however getting that possibility alone may be a problem— particularly with working across the telecom suppliers.

TC: How has the reception for Spiika been? How properly have folks obtained it thus far?

EFV: So far, it’s been good. We began with French to validate the necessity for it, as we’re surrounded by Francophone international locations and there’s a want to study French. In phrases of demand, we’ve seen more folks making an attempt to study French in contrast to some other language. Also, due to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which is headquartered right here in Ghana, more Ghanaians are wanting to study French because it’s the official language.

TC: How’s the edtech scene in Ghana?

EFV: The edtechs in Ghana are blooming however not as huge as I’d like or to the extent of our true potential as we nonetheless do not need a lot of publicity in contrast to international locations like Nigeria or North Africa. These international locations have more developed tech ecosystems normally, which when mixed with nation dimension, appears to be like more interesting to traders.

This lack of publicity straight interprets to little or no to no capital for native edtechs within the nation, which is a downside for entrepreneurs as they’ve to bootstrap or work on consultancy tasks to fund their operations. Even within the edtech house in Ghana, those that sometimes obtain probably the most mainstream consideration are coding hubs or startups, not K12 or language edtechs like Spiika.

TC: What are belongings you’d like to see occur within the Ghanaian tech ecosystem? 

There’s a in style saying on how entrepreneurs are over-mentored and underfunded, and that holds true. I’d like to see more funding into edtech, not simply a collection of recommendation and suggestions. While these are vital, we’d like the cash to truly implement the recommendation.

I’d additionally love to see more collaboration with the fintech or funds market. We had to step again from exploring the Nigerian market although we had a lot of customers due to cost issues. Payments is a vital a part of scaling for a lot of startups and so I’d love to see basic points within the funds house addressed.

Another factor I’d like to see is more transparency within the ecosystem. There appears to be a tradition of data hoarding and you’ve got to meet somebody personally or community in sure circles to find a way to entry sure data. In different more superior ecosystems, there’s data available on-line. You don’t have to know somebody to discover out what traders to pitch to, how massive their ticket sizes are, what grants to apply for, what share fairness is regular, and so on. Concrete data like this isn’t out there readily and is solely open on an unique foundation.