Founded by Shina Bid and Bijal Shah, the site aims to list all colleges and universities in the country to make it easier for students to find courses online, and withe easse.
“Our vision is to make it easy for people in Kenya to find the right course to help them fulfill their potential and ambition. We believe in the importance of education and training in improving ones opportunities and abilities to help lead a fulfilling life,” says Bid on their website. “Through our website, we want to help people select the right institution or training provider which fits their needs in terms of what they want to learn and where they want to learn it. We want to make it easy for people to undertake their educational needs within their current circumstances and lifestyle whether it be on a flexible basis or on a full-time basis.
Though there’s massive competition in the filed, with the likes of StudyinKenya , Gradstate, Somo, Kenyanplex, among others, the two say they aim to make Somasoma the most convenient way for people to find a course and a training provider in Kenya and as well have the most accurate and up-to-date course information in an easy to find way so users can browse by subject area, location, time preference and type of course.
“We also want to help course providers to provide more innovative courses in terms of accessibility and flexibility for the students by giving them the ability to display various options for each course,” they write on their site. “By listing their courses with us course providers can display as much relevant information as possible saving them the time and expense of providing this through other marketing channels.”
Apart from just listing courses, the platform gives course prodivers with branding and visibility they need to increase their market reach. Somasoma say they monitor page visits, email enquiries and other course page data on a daily basis for their clients so they give them feedback on request. It will be interesting to see who takes on the market especially as internet becomes a reality in Kenya but the leader will have to make the platform simple for users and as well get as many users as possible for course advertisers. Apart from just being a marketplace, such sites might be tempted into running agency services to get students for course providers for a fee than just doing listings.