By Rosemary Etim Bassey
Four Nigerian secondary school students have won a N5 million prize after developing a digital platform aimed at making textbooks more affordable and accessible to learners across the country.
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The students emerged national champions at the Zenith Bank Future Innovators Challenge, defeating other finalists from across Nigeria with their project, ReLearn.
The team, comprising Deborah Iweha, Makayla Inyere, Fife Alonge and Okeke Janelle, developed the platform to give unused textbooks a second life by connecting them with students who need learning materials but may struggle to afford new copies.
The idea followed independent research conducted by the students with parents, which helped them identify the high cost of educational materials as a challenge affecting access to learning.
Rather than allowing textbooks to remain unused in homes after their owners have finished with them, ReLearn seeks to make such books available to other learners at a fraction of their market price.
One of the team members, Fife Alonge, said the platform could help bridge educational gaps, particularly for children in underserved communities who often have limited access to quality learning materials.
She explained that making textbooks more affordable would give more children the opportunity to learn without placing additional financial pressure on their families.
The students said they planned to use their N5m prize money to expand the platform beyond their immediate school community and make thousands more textbooks available to Nigerian learners.
Their victory came at Zecathon 6.0, the 2026 edition of the Future Innovators Challenge, Zenith Bank’s flagship innovation competition for senior secondary school students.
Organised in partnership with Beyond Limits, the competition is part of a broader programme designed to expose young people to technology, teamwork, entrepreneurship and practical problem-solving. The top three schools shared a combined prize pool of N10m.
The winning team represented Caleb British International School, Abijo, Lagos, and received guidance from mentors at the school’s Young Entrepreneurs Club.
Reacting to the achievement, the Director of Caleb Group of Schools, Dr Oladega Adebogun, said the victory reflected the importance of investing in technology and creating opportunities for young people to develop practical solutions to everyday challenges.
He said the school’s investment in information and communication technology facilities and innovation laboratories had helped provide an environment where students could explore their ideas.
Adebogun described the victory as a collective achievement involving the students, their parents, mentors, teachers and school management.
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