What does it take to prepare Africa’s next generation of innovators? For decades, the answer has largely been the same: a physical university and a conventional path from classroom to labour
What does it take to prepare Africa’s next generation of innovators? For decades, the answer has largely been the same: a physical university and a conventional path from classroom to labour market.
However, as technology continues to reshape how people work, build businesses and solve problems, the idea of what a university should look like is changing. Young people today are looking for more than a degree; they need the flexibility to learn, experiment, build and apply knowledge to real-world challenges while still pursuing their education.
With technology creating new possibilities for institutions, what if the next generation of Africa’s most renowned innovators do not need to sit in a classroom to be equipped?
For a young Nigerian student, the answer is already taking shape with his experience at Miva Open University, as he shared an experience that offers a particularly compelling perspective on what this model can make possible.
A recent LinkedIn post by Almustapha Damilola Usman, a 200-level Data Science student at Miva Open University, has sparked conversations around the possibilities that flexible education can create for young people. In his open letter to Sim Shagaya, Founder of the uLesson Group and Miva Open University, Almustapha reflected on his personal journey, from being a beneficiary of uLesson during his secondary school years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, to becoming a student at Miva Open University, a tertiary education platform by the uLesson Group.
His story is more than a personal account of gaining education from one digital learning platform to another. It provides a glimpse into how technology-enabled education can create continuity in a young person’s learning journey and, importantly, give students the flexibility to pursue their ambitions alongside their education.
In his message to Shagaya, Almustapha described the vision of transforming African education from conventional and rigid structures into a more “digitised, proactive, and flexible system,” adding that he could make the assertion because he is “a product of it.” . In his words;
“I want to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to you, sir, for birthing Miva Open University. Your mission and vision of transforming African education from conventional, rigid structures into a digitised, proactive, and flexible system that represents one of the most significant innovations Nigeria currently possesses. I am saying this because I am a product of it.”
The significance of that statement becomes clearer when viewed alongside what Almustapha and his peers are already achieving. In the same account, Almustapha revealed that he and another Miva student from the Faculty of Computing emerged as the best innovators at Deep Learning Indaba 2026, Africa’s largest gathering of researchers, students and professionals working across artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science on the continent.
The two students, Almustapha, who is also a young founder of ZisoCare, and Kolade Stephen Afolabi, a 300-level Software Engineering student and founder of StripppleCare, represent an increasingly important dimension of the conversation around flexible education: what students can actually do with the flexibility they are given.
Almustapha, through ZisoCare, is building a closed-loop eye care system that combines clinical-grade screening, licensed specialists and AI-powered detection to help prevent avoidable blindness linked to diabetic retinopathy across Africa. While Kolade, through StripppleCare, is building a tech-driven platform designed to detect fraud within the healthcare system, through claim validations for HMOs, insurtechs, hospitals and pharmacies.
Their achievement moves the conversation beyond whether students can learn without being physically present in a traditional classroom, to another important conversation: How flexible education creates an environment where young people have more room to build, experiment and solve problems while they learn.
Miva Open University appears to be exploring that possibility. As Nigeria’s first licensed private open university, the institution has placed technology and flexibility at the heart of its approach to higher education. Its model allows students to pursue their academic programmes while creating room for innovation, entrepreneurship and practical application of their skills.
The institution is seen to be challenging the assumption that quality education must always happen within four walls, and the success of its students at a continental platform such as Deep Learning Indaba demonstrates what can happen when access to education is combined with technology, flexibility and an environment that allows young people to pursue ideas.
If Miva’s emerging talent is any indication, the future of African education may not be about choosing between the classroom and technology, but about using technology to create a better classroom.
Click the links below to read full interview of Kolade and Almustapha’s experience:
Miva Student Kolade Afolabi Is Building Trust in Healthcare Financing with StripppleCare
How Miva Student Almustapha Is Using AI to Tackle Blindness in Africa with ZisoCare
Read also: Sim Shagaya’s Miva Open University unveils Yaba centre and AI learning companion for students