The Power of Edutainment in Africa - A Conversation with Doreen Kessy

Doreen Kessy is a Chief Business Officer at Ubongo. At Ubongo, she is instrumental in the growth of the organization, innovating, and finding ways to continually deliver fun learning to over 17 million families in Africa. She has expertise in business development and leadership in the edtech and fun learning space. Doreen has an MBA and BSc in International Business and Economics from Liberty University and has worked at the International Justice Mission in Washington DC, Wells Fargo and Smile for Africa in Zimbabwe. She was named “Entrepreneur of the Year in Education” by Women In Africa, is a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, and a 2018 Acumen Fellow. Doreen loves to have fun, she acts the English voice of one of Ubongo Kids cartoon characters, Ngedere (a playful monkey).

With the huge number of children across Africa still lacking access to quality learning opportunities, it is so inspiring to hear about what Doreen and Nisha and the team at Ubongo are doing. And Ubongo is a great example of an organization working directly at the nexus between education and social entrepreneurship, not only working to support the learning of children and families across Africa, but also feeding back ideas and support into the education system itself. So I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Doreen, with the Ubongo team, won the Global Education and Skills Forum, Next Billion Edtech Prize in 2019 and, as a result, established The Building Brains Conference on early childhood learning and development.

Dina L G Borzekowski is researching the impact Ubongo is having, which you can read more about here: The Impact of an Educational Media Intervention to Support Children’s Early Learning in Rwanda