Ubongo, a Tanzanian-based company which creates fun, localized and multi-platform educational media that reaches millions of African families through television and the webs, has won the Next Billion Edtech Prize.
The award was launched by The Varkey Foundation to recognize innovative technology that can have an impact on education in low income and emerging world countries. Recall that The Varkey Foundation also recently awarded $1 million to a Kenyan teacher who emerged the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2019
Ubongo was voted for by delegates at the 2019 edition of the Global Education & Skills Forum from three startup finalists, which include PraxiLabs, and Dost. All three winners will be awarded $25,000.
Ubongo was founded in 2013 by Nisha Ligon in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and looks to bring kids a fun, engaging way to learn, on the technology that they already have.
Ubongo accomplishes this by leveraging the power of entertainment, the reach of mass media, and the interactivity of mobile devices, to deliver effective, localized learning to African families at low cost and massive scale.
The company’s multi-platform edutainment reaches over 5 million families weekly on TV, radio, mobile and web. Ubongo’s flagship animated TV show helps primary school children across Africa gain foundational skills in STEM subjects, while a sister show, Akili and Me, helps 3-6-year-olds develop numeracy, pre-literacy, language and socio-emotional skills.
Ubongo Kids broadcasts in Kiswahili and English on free-to-air TV across East Africa, and on pay-TV in French across Francophone Africa. Tanzanian animators and voice actors produce the show so that viewers can relate to the characters and scenes.
