The idea behind Ohkeroh started way back in the 2010/2011 academic year, while Emmanuel OBEN (CEO of OHKEROH) was pursuing his Master’s degree in Geography. One course in particular, GEO 622: Resource Analysis and Environmental Planning, left a lasting impression on him.
During a lecture on climate change, they explored how deforestation, especially for wood and paper production, was contributing to global warming. That session triggered a question that wouldn’t leave his mind:
“How many trees are cut down each year just so students like us can print assignments, write exams, or take lecture notes?”
Right there, the seed of an idea was planted. What if African universities could go paperless? What if we could make a real environmental impact starting from the very assignments we submit?
And so, the dream of Ohkeroh, a paperless, green digital assignment submission platform, was born.
Back then, building tech wasn’t easy. In 2011, IT engineers weren’t as accessible, and he didn’t have the technical know-how. Still, he held on to the vision.
Fast forward to 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgency of digital transformation hit him hard. Universities were shut down, students disconnected, and lecturers struggled to adapt. He saw clearly how vulnerable our paper-based systems were, not just environmentally, but also in terms of access, continuity, and resilience.
He decided to try again as he reached out to a local IT company. They charged me 700,000 XAF (1,246 USD), which he paid. Unfortunately, they couldn’t deliver and refund his money.
In 2023, he tried again, this time with a freelancer who charged 1,000,000 XAF (1,780 USD). He paid half, but the result still didn’t meet the vision he had nurtured for over a decade.
In 2025, he contacted another software company that charged him 24,000,000XAF (42,742 USD) to build the full platform and 6,000,000XAF (10,685USD) for website maintenance, yearly. This amount was way beyond his reach.
In the same year, 2025, while watching the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) station on a quiet Sunday morning, he saw a platform called NdeTeks Papers, which a young innovator named Nfor Nde and his team had built to increase students’ access to past examination question papers. Something clicked. He reached out to Nfor Nde, shared his story, and they decided to build something powerful together.
That’s how, after 15 years, Ohkeroh, which means “don’t give up” in his dialect, Bayangi, finally came to life.
