CNN Profiles 25 year-old Gossy Ukanwoke, ‘Nigeria’s Mark Zuckerberg’ ….

In late 2012, Nigerian Gossy Ukanwoke launched
Beni American University, the West African
country's first private online university.
The university offers a variety of courses, including
corporate diplomacy, global marketing and digital
journalism.
Ukanwoke, who has also started work to build a
physical campus, so far has 10 instructors and
about 200 students.
The university allows students to access their
classes at any time of the day with any internet-
enabled device.
A 12 week course can cost $100-$300, while the
average age of students is 26.
(CNN) – At 23, many people around the world are
still at university — at that age, Gossy Ukanwoke
had already started one.
The young entrepreneur is the founder of Beni
American University (BAU), Nigeria's first private
online university. Launched in late 2012, the school
allows students to access their classes at any time
of the day with any internet-enabled device.
"We are providing executive programs for
graduates who are looking for employment and
want to build up their resumes, or managers who
want to climb up the hierarchy of their companies,"
says Ukanwoke, now 25.
'Nigeria's Mark Zuckerberg'
Ukanwoke's idea to start BAU came from his
previous online venture called Students Circle, an
educational social networking site he'd launched
while in university that allows learners to interact
and access free resources from leading schools.
"When I created Students Circle in 2010," explains
Ukanwoke, "I found out that … many were looking
for certificates, hoping that they could get
something they could use to maybe find
employment or get a promotion in the workplace.
"There was a need for a new institution to be
created in Nigeria," adds Ukanwoke, who
was once described by Forbes as "Nigeria's Mark
Zuckerberg."
Now, some 18 months into his new business
endeavor, Ukanwoke has hired 10 instructors and
has about 200 students, with an average age of 26.
But the startup's journey so far has not been
without challenges — Nigerian laws require
universities to have a physical campus so last year
Ukanwoke went and bought land in the country's
Benue State with the goal to build a private campus
that could accommodate some 10,000 students.
Education is about teaching people how to make a
living and teaching people how to live.- Gossy
Ukanwoke, Beni American University
The project is expected to launch next year, but in
the meantime the web courses are up and running
— a 12 week online program can cost between
$100 and $300. Among the courses offered are
corporate diplomacy, global marketing, leadership
and management, digital journalism, project
management and entrepreneurship and innovation,
which is the university's most popular class.
"It's good because I have four kids," says
Chinenye Madukwe, one of BAU's students. "I have
opportunity to work at the same time, because I
have a small interior design outfit."
Oo Nwoye, another BAU student, says he enrolled
"for the knowledge."
"It is just helpful for my business and that is the
most important thing to me," he explains.
Education is key
A son of two teachers, Ukanwoke says he is
driven by his passion to use technology to solve
social problems.
"I grew up within the framework where education
was put at a very high level of importance, and
entrepreneurship is something that I always
wanted to do," he says.
"Without education I don't think we can do any
progress," he adds. "It's not just about getting a
certificate — education is about teaching people
how to make a living and teaching people how to
live; how to interact with others, how to lead their
lives and make something out of themselves,"
continues Ukanwoke.
"With education comes discipline and we need a lot
of discipline in Nigeria as well, so education is
really important."
Ukanwoke relies mainly on social media to
advertize but says that it's student referrals that
are increasing BAU's enrollment.
"We still have a long way to go, we have a lot of
work to do, a lot of policy wrangling too," he
admits. "But it's a work in progress and we are
quite happy with where we are."
Simpa Saint Samsons