How Taiwo Joseph Secures Global Partnerships For Impact | Story of A Nigerian EdTech Startup Founder

Imagine being recognised for your work, not just locally but also by global houses like the UN and the Mandela Washington Fellowship. It doesn’t end there. Pan-african bodies like Future Perspectives, AfriLabs, and the African Development Bank are ready to collaborate with you in deploying ecosystem-building initiatives. From designing programs to implementing impactful projects in the education, digital economy, and entrepreneurship spaces, Taiwo has happily gotten her hands dirty.

Taiwo Joseph is a visionary leader in digital education, entrepreneurship, and workforce development, with over five years of experience designing and implementing high-impact programs across Africa. She is the Co-founder and CEO of EriLearn , an innovative edtech initiative equipping young Africans with industry-relevant skills to thrive in the digital economy. Through Erilearn, Taiwo has spearheaded Project 10,000 Youths in Tech, expanding digital literacy and workforce readiness across 10 Nigerian states.

Her expertise spans program management, strategic partnerships, and gender-responsive innovation, with a strong commitment to inclusive economic empowerment. Previously, she co-planned the Lintna EdTech Bootcamp for EdTech founders and Project 10,000 Women in Tech, empowering women with critical technology skills in underserved communities. As a Product and Business Development Coordinator at Eyecity Africa, she played a key role in ecosystem-building initiatives, fostering collaborations with stakeholders like Future Perspectives, Access Bank, and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Beyond education, Taiwo has made a significant impact in sustainable energy and gender advocacy. At Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), she contributed to policy briefs, STEM Traineeship programs, and the Gender and Energy Compact Women Spotlight Series, amplifying women’s leadership in energy and climate solutions. She has also supported entrepreneurship acceleration programs, mentoring women-led startups and securing funding opportunities for emerging African entrepreneurs through initiatives like Women RevUp, an initiative by Afrilabs.

A recognised changemaker, Taiwo has been named among Nigeria’s Top 50 EdTech Innovators by Future Perspectives and received a UN Certificate of Recognition for Gender-Responsive Technology & Innovation. She was also selected for the Presidential Youth Mentorship Program at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library and the 2025 Mandela Washington Fellowship Program.

Who are you in one sentence?        

I'm a young lady on a mission to solve the crisis of under-education and the unemployment crisis in Africa. This is a huge problem, and of course, there are many initiatives created to solve this issue, but it doesn't seem to be getting resolved. So, one person is not enough. I'm just that person who's on the lookout for partnerships, collaborations, opportunities to ensure that we alleviate this crisis and young people are given the right opportunity that they deserve.

If someone made a movie about your life, what would the title be?        

I think the first one that came to mind is “Against the Odds”. Another would be “The Girl Who Won the Future”.

What's one sentence that best describes your journey so far as an entrepreneur in Africa?        

The first one would be “Grace” because everything that I've been able to achieve so far is not by the virtue of my works, I mean, there are people who are more hardworking than I am. I just see how God's grace has been sufficient all the way. The second would be “Resilience in the face of impossibilities, in the face of adversity when the odds are so strong”. When questions like “Are you sure you're going to make it?” arise, the fact that I stood and I still kept on going, I think that would describe my journey so far.

Wow, interesting. Now, can you take us back a little bit? We want to know where you're coming from, where you started from. What was your life before this journey started?        

One of the things that I say about my story and how it started is – I saw a young girl who did not have enough opportunities like every other young lady of her age. I remember the day that I was sent back from school because I hadn't paid my tuition, and guess how much the money was. It was equivalent to $1. I mean, $1. And I'm like, wow, like, how is that even possible? Right, that's about NGN1,600. My parents couldn't afford to pay that, and I was in a public school. I also remember when I was in university, I didn't even have a laptop of my own. I had to borrow from my friends. Despite all of that, I'm still that young person. I remember starting a student entrepreneurship club in my school. Then, I thought to myself, I have a lot of young people like me who do not have access to enough resources. So we can start doing business in school, to help us pay our tuition, and then from there become something bigger. At that time, I just felt like students should also have their own businesses. So, I gathered students together, we started talking about entrepreneurship, and how we can grow our businesses and all of that. After university, I started thinking about many young people like me who did not have enough opportunities and resources while growing up. So, how do we help them? Of course, we all understood the stark reality of youth unemployment. What we are taught in university eventually is not what the labour market requires, right? It's just like there's a gap. So, I bridged that gap. That was how I started thinking and how my company started, Erilearn. So the story for me has been someone who sees a gap and just wants to fill it, who sees a problem and wants to solve it. It doesn't even matter if it's something that I can do or not. But once I see a problem, I want to solve it. So then, I didn't have the resources. I was just one young girl who didn't even have so much opportunities like every other person. But I want to look at how I can solve problems. I think, “What can I do?” And I think that single experience, that single character, has helped me to become more and more impactful. The more I keep going, I keep finding solutions, I keep looking out for opportunities that can help others and help them advance.

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Can you tell us: What was the exact moment that you knew you had to start EriLearn?        

It was during my second job. After I was done with university, I started working as a business development manager. Of course, I love helping businesses. So it was not a surprise that I was working as a business development manager. Then I started seeing the shift in the business and entrepreneurship space. There are a lot of things going on in terms of tech adoption by businesses. I started to see how things are changing. Of course, I didn't study business administration, and I didn't get a business degree. This was just something that I have a passion for. I went for some training after I was done with uni, and I thought, “How do I become relevant in the tech industry?” So I started my journey to product management, and I saw how it was a struggle to learn because so many training platforms that are available are either virtual or generic. There are no local adoptions in terms of the kind of businesses we do in Africa. Most of the courses you see are ones that I might not be able to relate to. I also saw a gap in internship placements. When I was done with the training, it took me a lot of time, almost a year to get an internship placement. I was just working on projects. I was going online to find different projects just to have a portfolio. Then, I was able to get an internship through a referral from a friend. Even though I started working as a product manager because of my business development background, it was very easy for me to start thriving as a product manager. All of these experiences sum up how I started everything. It's kind of not so easy for most young people who want to transition to tech, especially when they're looking for a lot of experience. I thought, “How can I use the use case of a company in Africa?”, you know, because that's what we are familiar with, right? We could learn about other global startups, I know, but we need to start, you know, localising the content to our realities here in Nigeria, our realities here in Africa. So that prompted me to start the academy. Then, I started with just product management, which is my own knowledge area. We had just five students who enrolled at that time. And I think we made it very affordable. For the five students who enrolled, we took them on a three-month journey for the training. Then we had an internship placement. After the six-month experience, one of them got a job almost immediately. I was excited. Unlike me, it took me more than a year to even get an internship. So I'm like, okay, this is looking good. And then I started moving forward. So after the experience, I spoke with my employer about the idea I had. I spoke with her. She was like, yeah, this is a good idea. We started with a partner from the Developer Institute in Tel Aviv. I resigned from my job. And then I'm like, I want to take this on. This is interesting to me. I feel like this is solving the problem we're having in Nigeria and, of course, Africa. And that was how the journey started. We started with five. Currently, we're holding 10,000 youth and women empowerment projects across the states in Nigeria. Aside from that, we're also moving across Africa. So it's just really amazing, and we're just like two years old at the moment. I'm seeing so much growth and progress happening with the initiative.

If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?        

Okay, so I think this is a very deep one. But what I would tell my younger self would be: don't wait for anyone's permission. Start with what you have. Start where you are, and the world will catch up with you. I think this is something I would tell my younger self, and it's something I will keep reminding myself as I grow up, because we keep facing challenges that tell us we are not enough – “You can't do it yet”, “It is not enough yet”. But every time we allow those challenges to define who we are or define our realities, we stop ourselves from becoming our real selves. And that's something that I realised. Every time I think about my story, if I had allowed those comments to become my reality, I might just be someone living in one country now, working and struggling to survive, or doing what I do not want. So a summary would be, don't wait for permission, start with what you have, where you are, and the world will catch up with you sooner or later.

What's a struggle from your early days that people don't usually know about?

Okay, so the first thing people often think is that I'm an extrovert. That Taiwo is the kind of girl who’s not shy; she speaks to everyone. I mean, she's got it, you know, she's just got it. I get that a lot. They say, “She's very outspoken”, but the truth is I'm not; I didn't start that way...

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