Sim Shagaya, founder of the uLesson Group, the Nigerian edtech company behind uLesson and Miva Open University, will step down as CEO after eight years and transition to the role of Executive Chairman.
Iheanyi Akwitti, Group Chief Academic Officer and Registrar, will assume the role of CEO-Designate from June 2026 and officially take over as Group CEO on January 1, 2027, the company said in a statement on Monday.
The transition comes a month after Shagaya announced the launch of Myka, his newly founded insurance startup. He will remain uLesson’s Group CEO throughout the transition period, working closely with Akwitti across operational, board, governance, investor, partner, and external stakeholder matters.
“It feels right that this chapter ends here, and that Iheanyi Akwitti is the person carrying us forward,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the leadership change.
Akwitti joined uLesson Group in 2022 as Senior Vice President, Academics and Curriculum, where he helped shape the company’s academic direction as it expanded beyond K-12 learning—education for children from kindergarten through twelfth grade, the company said.
