Teaching money differently: Sola Adesakin’s Edtech roadmap to financial freedom

Education is often imagined within four walls. A classroom, a board, a teacher, and a timetable. But across Africa, women are redefining what education looks like and where it happens.

They are building virtual learning systems that travel beyond physical spaces and reach people in their everyday lives. This is called Educational Technology (Edtech), and Sola Adesakin is one of them.

A chartered accountant in Nigeria and Canada, Adesakin holds a Higher National Diploma in Accounting from The Polytechnic of Ilaro; a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, and an MBA from Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University. 

She is a Financial Services Professional and a Financial Literacy Advocate for the National Financial Educators Council. Recognised as one of Nigeria’s 100 Most Inspiring Women (2020, 2025) and one of Africa’s 100 Leading Coaches (2024), she has spent over two decades transforming how individuals and businesses think about money.

As the Founder of Smart Stewards Financial Advisory Limited and Smart Stewards Advisory LLC, Sola has helped people across 40+ countries achieve financial stability using her practical make–manage–multiply money principles.

She also led the development of WealthSync, a financial planning app designed to help users not just understand money, but actively manage and grow it. 

Through education, fintech solutions, and global partnerships, Adesakin continues to bridge financial inequality and champion gender equality from her base in Lagos, Nigeria.

Adesola Adesakin

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How Sola Adesakin’s Edtech journey started

Nearly a decade ago, Adesakin experienced something that felt deeply ironic. Despite her professional training as an accountant, she struggled with her personal finances. When she eventually found stability and clarity, it opened her eyes to a reality many people were quietly facing.

“Despite being a chartered accountant, I once struggled with my own finances. When I eventually found my footing and built financial stability, I realised how many capable, hardworking people were silently facing the same confusion and fear around money,” she said.

Adesakin started teaching financial literacy informally. First to friends, then to small communities, simply to help people avoid the mistakes she had made and shorten their learning curve.

However, those conversations revealed a bigger problem. Too many people needed this knowledge, but traditional one-on-one teaching would never scale far enough. That was the moment she realised financial education needed to move from conversations to systems.

Then she started Smart Stewards. This has evolved into a full edtech platform, delivering structured financial literacy in a way that is accessible, practical, and scalable. 

Adesakin didn’t stop there. She and her team noticed another problem: people were learning, but still struggling with execution. 

So they layered fintech into their work through WealthSync, a financial planning app which helps users not only understand money but manage and grow it.

Adesola

Major challenges faced

Adesakin’s journey was not short of its challenges. In her interview with Technext, she mentioned that one of the most challenging parts of her journey was building systems where none existed. 

Creating structure, standards, and processes in environments that were not originally designed for scale or sustainability. It often meant starting from scratch, educating stakeholders along the way, and pushing through resistance or slow adoption.

“Another major challenge has been securing buy-in from the right quarters. Vision is powerful, but getting others to see it, trust it, and invest in it — whether time, resources, or influence — requires persistence, credibility, and emotional intelligence. Impact doesn’t happen in isolation; it requires alignment,” she said.

Adesakin added that ensuring sustainable impact has also stretched her in this journey. 

“It’s one thing to inspire people in the moment; it’s another to build solutions, platforms, and habits that continue working long after the excitement fades. These experiences have taught me resilience and patience. I have learned that meaningful change takes time, that resistance is often part of the process, and that staying consistent — even when progress feels slow — is what ultimately turns vision into lasting transformation,” Adesakin said.

Notwithstanding, the skills that have been most critical to her success sit at the intersection of people, strategy, and communication.  

“First, people skills have been foundational. The work I do is deeply human — whether I’m coaching individuals, leading teams, or working with partners, understanding motivations, emotions, and behaviour has been just as important as understanding numbers.  Closely tied to that is people governance and culture oversight,” Adesakin said.

She noted that building sustainable impact requires more than good ideas; it requires strong systems, clear accountability, and a culture that supports growth, integrity, and excellence. Being able to nurture high-performing environments while maintaining empathy has been key.  

Today, Adesakin leverages technology to democratise financial knowledge and tools, so everyday Africans can make, manage, and multiply money with confidence.

The relevance of Smart Steward to everyday users

According to Adesakin, the problem she is most focused on solving right now is the gap between income and wealth.

Africa is blessed with talent, resources, energy, and entrepreneurial drive, yet many people still struggle to translate their hard work into lasting financial security. It’s not just an earnings problem — it’s a financial understanding and access problem.

Adesakin emphasised that too many people are making money without knowing how to structure it, grow it, protect it, or pass it on. That’s where Smart Stewards comes in. 

“Our work centres on making personal finance less intimidating and more practical, while also using technology to give people real access to tools that help them budget, save, invest, and plan long term. This matters deeply in Africa’s tech ecosystem because technology is scaling opportunity faster than ever before — but if financial literacy doesn’t scale alongside it, people will earn more without building real wealth,” She said.

Adesakin reaffirmed that when she is making decisions that affect people — whether users, teams, students, or audiences — she follows a simple but disciplined approach: start, test, and scale.

“I believe in taking thoughtful action quickly rather than waiting for perfection. We launch ideas in a lean way, observe how people interact with them, gather feedback, and refine. If something works and creates real value, we scale it. If it doesn’t, we adjust or move on — but always with lessons learned,” She said.

By combining financial education (edtech) with financial planning tools (fintech), Adesakin is helping more Africans move from survival to stability, and from stability to wealth creation.

Adesola Adesakin, Founder of Smart Stewards

Final thoughts 

Adesakin’s journey has required building systems where none existed, creating standards in environments not designed for scale, and patiently securing buy-in from stakeholders along the way. 

Her biggest turning point was leaving the comfort of a defined accounting path to pursue her passion for wealth creation — a decision that aligned her personal experiences with her professional expertise.

Now, she doesn’t just love what she does; she is doing what she was meant to do, and it has had the most profound impact on her career trajectory.

Her advice to women in tech: Be yourself — every other person is already taken. Don’t waste years trying to fit into someone else’s mould. Discover your lane, own your story, and build with passion and consistency. And please, don’t try to do it alone — get help, find mentors, join communities, and stay open to learning. Growth is faster and stronger when you’re supported.

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