How Tobi Asehinde’s Startup is Bridging the Digital Skill Gap in Nigeria and Across Africa

As you may well know, the future of work is digital and only those with the right digital skills can excel. Sadly, the reality is that the gap between digital opportunities and skilled talents is quite wide. This is a major problem, one that Tobi Asehinde is trying to solve with his startup Digital Marketing Skills Institute (DMSI). In this exclusive interview with Business Elites Africa, he tells us how he is doing exactly that. He also talks about the importance of digital skills in a highly-digitalised world. enjoy the interview.

It’s nice to meet you, Sir. Briefly introduce yourself to our readers, focusing on how your journey in entrepreneurship began.

My name is Tobi Asehinde, I’m the founder and CEO of Digital Marketing Skills Institute (DMSI). My journey in entrepreneurship began at a very young age. And I think it has a lot to do with the fact that both of my parents were entrepreneurs. I remember back then in college, I always knew where to get the

recommended textbooks at cheaper prices. I would buy these books very cheap and resell them to my course mates and make a small profit. Fast-forward to much later in my life, I went to study for my Master of Engineering degree at the University of Portsmouth. And, during my final year of the programme, I teamed up with my housemate to start a hotel booking website.

We hired someone to create the website. Unfortunately, we made no returns from that investment despite spending all of our savings on it. But we took away an important lesson from that venture, and that’s the fact that marketing is very important. Consequently, I took it upon myself to learn how to market. And that was part of the starting point of my journey into becoming a digital marketing entrepreneur. Using technology to accelerate knowledge around digital marketing is the core of what I do now. The plan is to help as many businesses as possible to achieve results.

Your startup, DMSI, is doing a lot to bridge the digital skill gap in Nigeria. Tell us more about your journey so far with the startup and the journey ahead.

Let me begin with how the whole idea of DMSI came about. You know, I did talk a bit earlier about starting a hotel booking website with my flatmate. Around the same time we started, I went to the USA for my brother’s graduation. Being a typical startup founder, I wore my company’s branded T-Shirt to the graduation ceremony. Interestingly, this caught a lot of people’s attention. They would ask me ‘oh what’s this about?’ and I would tell them it’s my startup. And then they would check out the website and the next thing they would ask me is to build a website for them. They actually assumed I was the one who built the website myself. Well, I didn’t tell them that I didn’t build the website, nor did I admit building it. Interesting thing is that before I left America, I got two people that were willing to pay me $1000 each to build a website for them. And so by the time I returned to the UK, I sat myself down and started learning how to build a website.

The key to that is that I realized that there was an opportunity here. People are constantly on the lookout for people with digital skills. Unfortunately, there is a huge gap between those in need of digital marketing services and those with the talent. From the onset, I had a company called Vibeweb Solutions. We were rendering different digital marketing services to clients. But we couldn’t work for everybody. Our prices were also a little steep. We thought to ourselves ‘what better way to make a greater impact than to replicate ourselves in other people’. And that was what inspired DMSI. So, we started to train people on how we do what we do and expose them to the opportunities around digital marketing. We also have a platform that connects our students directly to these available opportunities.

How do you classify yourself; as an edtech platform or a digital marketing company?

We are an edtech company, just as much as we do digital marketing. I mean, we are primarily focused on using technology to facilitate education and that makes us an edtech platform.

How much does it typically cost to do a programme in DMSI?

Before I answer that, let me just quickly talk about the value we impact. One thing we take pride in is being able to provide a good level of support to our students. We have three main programmes and all of them are designed to not only give students the opportunity to learn, but to also provide support to them.

Another thing is that we believe in practicality and that’s what our programmes centre around. As far as digital marketing is concerned, it is all about practicality. You cannot say you can build a website just by word of mouth, you have to be able to do it. You cannot say you can advertise and drive results for clients, you have to be able to do it. Also, you cannot just grow a social media platform by word of mouth.

It’s all a matter of practicality. You might be able to talk about the theoretical aspects, but doing it is a different ballgame because it requires a lot more than just talk. So, we don’t believe in exams, we believe in practicality. And one of the things we do is to give our students practical assignments which they must score above 80% to pass.

We are very strict about this such that anyone who does not pass will have to redo the assignment. We do this because not only are we ensuring to pass the right knowledge, these students will be representing our brand upon graduation, and we cannot afford to have ill-equipped ex-students of DMSI. That said, we have three main programmes – the professional programme which costs N250,000, the master’s programme goes for N350,000 currently and the executive programme which goes for N700,000.

A lot of people in Nigeria are worried about the impact of the government’s over-regulation of the digital space. Do you share in their worry?

For some reason, I am not quite as worried as I might be expected to be. The digital space is quite complex. And it’s not just in Nigeria that it is being

regulated. In America for instance, Mark Zuckerberg and other top players in the tech space have been summoned before senate hearings to defend their activities. So, regulation of the tech space is not peculiar to Nigeria. However, it should be more about working together than working against each other.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a digital entrepreneur and how do you navigate them?

There’s been numerous challenges obviously, no thanks to operating in a country like Nigeria. One is the human capital challenge. Well, I wouldn’t say we’ve faced much of a funding challenge because we are a bootstrap company; meaning that we generate our own money and grow the business organically. But majorly, where we have the most challenge is with getting the right talent. Interestingly, that is also one of the reasons we are in business – to help businesses to also get the right talents.

Now, let’s talk about funding. I know you already explained that you are a bootstrap company. But do you still have any plans of raising capital?

Right now, we are bootstrapping. In the near future, we might be interested in talking to anyone that might be interested in investing. In the meantime, however, we do seek out a lot of partnerships. And recently, we started looking into grants. And I am happy to say that we have one right now. I can’t go into full details, but it is a foreign organisation that has given us a grant to expand the good work we are doing.

Tell us five essential things every aspiring digital entrepreneur needs to have prior to starting.

The first one is commitment. Consistency is also very important in digital marketing because in digital marketing, you don’t go to bed after accomplishing one success. You must be consistent with it just as much as you need to be committed to it. I tell people that in order for you to stay committed and consistent, you must be willing to make some sacrifices.

And that’s the third essential attribute every digital entrepreneur must have. You must also be determined and believe that there is ‘gold’ in digital marketing, because there is. You must trust the hustle and be result-driven.

Besides teaching people digital skills, do you also run campaigns for companies?

We do, although we are very selective when it comes to who we work with. We do not want to work with too many people. So, we have our clientele and we want to keep it small like that. Another reason is that we may not even be affordable for a lot of people because of the price we charge for such services. And that’s why we do DMSI so that we can train people to be able to service those clients we do not serve.

What differentiates you from your competitors?

Well, first of all, I don’t see them as competitors. And the reason is because in this digital space, I believe there is enough opportunity for everyone.

And anyone who understands value will always make an informed decision about who to patronize. For us, we have two major values that differentiate us; if you want to learn digital marketing practically, then there is no other place that can give you that in Nigeria. If you also need support in the course of your studies, you come to us.

We provide these two major things that are very essential as far as learning digital marketing is concerned. And recently, we’ve added a third value; if you want your return on investment in the form of access to the market, we’ve got you covered.

Do you have any last advice for employers and employees as far as digital marketing is concerned?

Yes. For business owners, they must understand that digital marketing is an essential part of their business. It’s important for them to know about digital marketing themselves even before they hire a digital marketer. It’s more like the same way CEOs are taught about finance in business schools, even though they will eventually hire an accountant. You may not be the one to sit down and do the books, but you still need to understand how it works. Same applies to digital marketing. You must understand digital marketing so you can work effectively with your inhouse digital marketer.

Business owners and digital marketers must also understand what we call conversion windows. This helps you understand how to get results when it comes to digital marketing. And, what is the conversion window? It basically means the time it takes a complete stranger to become a paying customer. Understanding this helps to ensure that expectations are better managed between the employer and the employee.