Chukwuwezam Obanor, widely recognised for co-founding and scaling the Nigerian edtech company PrepClass, is now setting his sights on a new venture: FicientAI, an AI startup aimed at revitalising dormant sales leads through personalised, one-to-one conversational engagement.
Obanor, a Mandela Washington Fellow and Forbes Africa rising entrepreneur, famously helped grow PrepClass from a two-person operation into a 60‑plus employee company, connecting tens of thousands of students with tutors across Africa. With FicientAI, he plans to bring a similarly transformative edge to sales and marketing functions.
Obanor gives an insight into the expected origins and capabilities of FicientAI:
So I’m back, founder hat on and a mission that gets me out of bed:
Helping businesses unlock new revenue from their old leads using AI-powered one-to-one conversations.
Why? Because I’ve lived this problem.At PrepClassNG, we accumulated over 50,000 leads. I believe at least 10,000 to 15,000 were high-quality leads, but we converted only 10 to 15 percent of them into clients.
Why? Because repeated follow-ups and engaging unresponsive leads are expensive, difficult, and frustrating. Yet, relying only on new leads creates a cycle where growth is tied to constant ad spend.
FicientAI breaks that cycle.
We deploy an AI-driven system that automates personalised one-to-one conversations with old leads — guiding those conversations toward new sales.
Obanor elaborates:
Here’s the reality for most businesses today:
Acquiring new clients is 4 – 7x more expensive than re-engaging old ones.
Over 50 percent of sales happen after the third contact — but most teams give up too soon.
The average business converts only 20 to 30 percent of its leads, the rest waste away in CRMs, gathering dust.
Most companies are sitting on a goldmine of old leads, but they lack the time and tools to re-engage them.That’s where FicientAI comes in. We help companies turn cold leads into new sales. No hype. No fluff. Just real business impact.
FicientAI is reportedly in early beta testing phases, partnering with selected SMEs and mid‑market firms in Nigeria to pilot its conversational AI engine. Though details of pricing and investment remain under wraps, Obanor’s vision underscores a growing trend: using AI to supercharge commerce by intelligently managing pre‑existing relationships.
With deep roots in edtech growth and a flair for tech-driven strategy, Obanor’s FicientAI may reshape how businesses tap into forgotten leads. Watch closely as it rolls out its AI pilot in Nigeria—and potentially beyond.
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