Mwasi Wilmore has been named the new CEO of Ubongo, who will lead the organization into a new phase of Pan-African growth and influence.
Ubongo is a pan-African startup, non-profit social venture that uses localised edutainment to improve school readiness and learning outcomes while also fostering social and behavioral change communication among children and their caregivers.
Mwasi comes to Ubongo after leading and expanding organisations and businesses over the past few years, as well as providing business and strategy advice across Africa and the world. She has worked with Fortune 100 businesses such as Citibank, Wachovia, and Bank of America in the United States as well as on international projects.
She subsequently returned to Tanzania, where she co-founded and helped establish a 4G company before selling it to a mobile network. She has helped firms working in Africa on strategy, operations, technology, risk, and project management as a strategy consultant.
Mwasi is half Tanzanian and half American, and has lived in a number of African nations. She brings to Ubongo a strong network and a plethora of expertise.
Mwasi has a longstanding passion for education and felt compelled to leave the business world to pursue a career in education.
She worked as the CEO of Camara Education Tanzania, an education technology social company, for two years starting in 2018, where she met Ubongo through the Discover Learning Project.
She is an organizational leader and people-developer who is committed to culture, people development, and helping everyone she works with bring out the best in themselves – exactly the kind of leader and people-developer Ubongo needs to scale its impact and achieve its big vision of transforming learning for all African children.
“Ubongo has this electric air that’s fueled by the team’s genuine passion, drive to make a positive impact and Utu. The electricity is embodied in every layer of the organization and the goals it sets out to achieve. Ubongo not only stands by its values, it lives and thrives within them,” said Mwasi Wilmore, incoming CEO.
Mwasi will be in charge of developing and implementing a strategy plan for Ubongo’s next phase of expansion.
The objectives include providing free, localised edutainment to all children in Sub-Saharan Africa, reaching 60 million children by 2025, and building an industry-leading Pan-African team and culture.
Nisha Ligon, Co-Founder and outgoing CEO of Ubongo, will transition into a new and exciting role at the company after more than 8 years at the helm.
“Co-founding and leading Ubongo as CEO over the past 9 years has been the greatest adventure of my life.
“From making our first test videos with kids in Tanzania in 2012 to reaching an audience of over 27 million kids with beloved edutainment in 2021. I’ve been able to draw upon my skills as a product-builder, writer and innovator to develop and scale our products, alongside our incredible team of sixty Ubongoers, to reach where we are today.
“But to achieve our big hairy audacious goal of bringing quality, localized edutainment to all kids in Africa, we need the visionary leadership of an organisation builder who can sustainably nurture and grow Ubongo, our team and our impact. And I’m excited to say: we’ve found her!” said Nisha Ligon.
