This blog is part of a series showcasing the winners of the African Union ‘Innovating Education in Africa’ program.
My name is Boubacar Sidikou. I am 36 years old and I am from Niger. I am a software and telecoms engineer and worked for over 12 years for the telecoms operators Orange and Moov.
As I gained experience in the sector, I knew that I wanted to do more with the knowledge I had acquired. So I set up my own company, i-Futur, in 2015. It specializes in providing digital, IT and network solutions for all sectors.
i-FUTUR is the first technology partner operating in the education sector in Niger. Since 2017, i-FUTUR has supervised operations to digitize a wide range of activities of the information systems in the Ministry of National Education, as well as in schools and training institutions.
Creating a new, robust system for exam candidates
Niger is a very large and populated country. One of the major challenges facing the education sector has been how to ensure that candidates from all regions of the country can easily complete the necessary formalities for taking a national examination.
In fact, owing to the distance between communities, some candidates were forced to take leave from their jobs just to be able to complete registration requirements. Moreover, state authorities often had to wait several months for all communities to send all the necessary documentation on the candidates. There was a risk that with all this back and forth, documents could be misplaced. There was even a risk to the state in terms, for example, of collecting the registration fees that had been paid.
Lauréat, our innovative platform, provides solutions to all these challenges. It consists of several platforms and software programs for digitizing the processes for national examinations and competitions (enrollment of candidates, payment of registration fees, issuance of notifications to take an exam, digital management by examiners, online publication of results, presentation of diplomas).
Using Lauréat, we helped the Office du Baccalauréat du Niger (Niger Baccalaureate Office) organize the examinations for the Baccalaureate and the advanced vocational training certificate (Brevet de Technicien Supérieur, BTS). This innovative platform was used to solve a host of problems, such as the lack of communication with candidates, errors in the submission of applications, red tape in candidate file management, human error in the correction of exams, processing of complaints, and archaic methods of records management.
Lauréat has benefited:
- Examination candidates
- School administrators, principals and assistant principals
- Chairs of boards of examiners, teacher-researchers
- Government officials.