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Online business school debuts, targets 100,000 entrepreneurs by 2022

By Femi Adekoya
12 July 2019   |   3:36 am
To improve the capacity of small businesses and enhance their contributions to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Business Lab Africa, (BLA), an online business school, has been unveiled to address such needs.

[FILE PHOTO] Entrepreneur

To improve the capacity of small businesses and enhance their contributions to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Business Lab Africa, (BLA), an online business school, has been unveiled to address such needs. Besides, the business lab targets, to have empowered about 100,000 entrepreneurs with the needed tools to succeed by 2022.
  
Unveiled by Triciabiz, the school offers a new approach to learning, seeks to provide African entrepreneurs with practical and locally relevant knowledge to build sustainable businesses. It is also subscription-based, and geared towards providing quality content at a price that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can afford. 
    
According to the promoters of the platform, there is a need for businesses to look beyond survival and contribute their quota to economic growth.
   
Speaking on the operations of the platform, Lead Trainer, BLA, Tricia Ikponmwonba, explained that she was motivated by a recent report on the poor contributions of small businesses to the economy despite Nigeria having about 37 million registered enterprises.
   
She said BLA’s faculty consists of trainers with deep business knowledge, who have consulted and trained for several Fortune 100 companies, and taught a combined pool of over one million entrepreneurs through their online and in-class courses/workshops. 
  
She revealed that the school has trained over 20,000 people in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, United States, United Kingdom, and the UAE.
   
“At BLA, we are poised towards our simple goal; helping entrepreneurs succeed in business. We have adopted a blended learning model where we make use of several methods that simplifies the entire process. 
   
“One of our methods is instructor learning, which is achieved via recorded videos addressing specific sub-topics under the subject area for the month, live classes with experts to answer burning questions you might have and worksheets/templates for guidance,” she said.She added that the school also uses peer-to-peer learning in its online community where fellow learners can teach each other ideas that have worked for them and build on the belief that to teach is to learn twice.

Aside from deploying real business situations as case studies, Ikponmwonba said BLA boasts of several differentiating factors from other learning platforms, which include using content that is curated with the African market as the business operating factor.

“As against delivering lessons through recorded videos alone, we have live classes monthly for access to the experts and for further learning through Q and A,” she added.
  
The Project Manager for the business school, Romoke Oladejo, said training will be facilitated by a faculty of both local and foreign experts to bridge the gap in skills needed for the global market.
   
“We also have a support system consisting of community coaches who are on ground to respond to any questions learners have which can be communicated in the comment section of each lesson,” Oladejo said.
   
Courses on the curriculum, according to BLA, are taught by business experts from around the world covering a wide range of business subject areas including marketing, sales, global expansion, business structure and processes, business models and more.

 

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