Amara Okoye

Nigerian educator who created Africa's first mobile literacy program for nomadic communities

Amara Okoye (b. 1975) revolutionized education access in Nigeria's nomadic Fulani communities through her Mobile Learning Initiative. Witnessing educational disparities growing up in rural Kaduna state, she earned a master's in educational technology from the University of Ibadan before developing her groundbreaking program in 2003.

Okoye's innovation was the EduCam - a ruggedized tablet preloaded with interactive lessons in Hausa and Fulfulde languages. These devices are distributed via mobile libraries mounted on solar-powered trucks that travel to remote grazing areas. The program includes:

• Offline access to 2,000+ educational videos
• Customizable content for different age groups
• Biometric attendance tracking

By 2022, the initiative had reached 85,000 children in Nigeria and expanded to Chad and Mali. Okoye's partnership with UNICEF in 2010 secured funding to train 1,200 nomadic educators. Her work was highlighted in BBC's Africa Eye series and earned her the 2018 Global Teacher Prize nomination.

In 2016, she introduced the Women's Tech Hub, teaching nomadic women digital skills using the same mobile infrastructure. This program has empowered over 15,000 women to start small businesses through e-commerce platforms. Okoye's methods have been adapted by UNESCO for desert regions in Morocco and Mauritania.

Despite her success, Okoye remains committed to her nomadic students: 'Education must move to where the children are,' she says. Her vision of mobile education continues to redefine possibilities for marginalized learners worldwide.