Nigerian edtech company Gradely has appointed Adebayo Alomaja as Deputy CEO. Since joining as a tutor in 2021, Alomaja has been instrumental in growing its international tutoring business to six-figure annual recurring revenue.
Now stepping into the Deputy CEO role, Alomaja also known as “BayoGPT,” will focus on strengthening Gradely’s growth strategy and expanding its impact. The platform currently serves over 150,000 students worldwide, and works with more than 150 tutors across multiple markets. “This presents a great opportunity for me to solve bigger problems, and I’m looking forward to the adventure,” he told Condia.
In the coming months, Alomaja plans to review Gradely’s growth strategies, invest in market insights, and rebrand for the next phase. He outlined his key priorities, emphasising:
“For the team, we’ll double down on psychological safety and teamwork. For the product, we’ll be more customer-centric while improving our Net Promoter Score. And for marketing, we’ll expand our diaspora growth team,” he said.
“Adebayo has proven to be not just an exceptional educator but a visionary leader with strong business acumen,” said Boye Oshinaga, CEO of Gradely. “What’s most exciting for me is to have someone that thinks long term and is as just as strategic as myself in building alongside me and the team.”
Founded in 2021, Gradely provides personalised learning experiences for K-12 students, which includes kindergarten through Senior Secondary School 3 (12th grade equivalent in Nigeria.) While based in Nigeria, the platform is used in eight countries including Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, and by Africans in the diaspora. The e-learning platform, accessible on web and mobile, has delivered over 25,000 lessons, reinforcing its growing impact.
“Gradely’s vision is to build highly innovative edtech and education products for a global market while solving the deep challenges of basic education back home,” Oshinaga explained.
In Nigeria’s Edtech space, competitors like uLesson focused on offline-accessible content and data cost reduction. Gradely, however, differentiates itself by empowering teachers and providing data-driven student performance solutions for parents. The company uses adaptive learning to adjust challenge levels and offers online tutoring, a substantial part of its business model targeting parents with dedicated internet solutions.
Before his appointment, Alomaja was already recognised for his contributions to education through Eazi-Digi, an education consulting firm he runs. The firm uses research, technology, and networking to develop future-ready learning systems in partnership with schools.
As Gradely approaches its fifth year of operation, this leadership shift signals a commitment to sustainable growth in a challenging market. The Nigerian edtech landscape remains difficult to navigate, with companies like Edukoya recently shutting down despite strong investor backing.
Industry analysts point to several persistent challenges in the sector—finding product-market fit before scaling, accurately gauging the true addressable market size, and solving the distribution puzzle in fragmented educational systems. Gradely’s strategy of direct school partnerships and parent-focused monetization appears to be its response to these market realities.
