Njeri Rionge

Kenyan tech entrepreneur who revolutionized education access in Africa through mobile learning platforms

Njeri Rionge is a visionary Kenyan entrepreneur whose innovative approach to education has made a transformative impact across Africa. As founder of Eneza Education (now part of Mastercard Foundation's Esoko Group), she pioneered mobile-based learning solutions that reached over 1 million students in 20 African countries by 2018. Her work addresses the critical challenge of educational access in regions with limited school infrastructure, leveraging basic mobile phones which 90% of Africans own.

Rionge's breakthrough came during her time at Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology where she developed the first SMS-based tutoring system for rural students. This evolved into Eneza's flagship service offering curriculum-aligned content, practice tests, and interactive quizzes via simple SMS. The platform now includes features like teacher dashboards and parental engagement tools, supported by partnerships with governments and NGOs.

Her initiatives have particular significance for girls' education: 60% of Eneza users are female students in countries like Nigeria and Ghana where gender disparities in schooling remain pronounced. A case study by UNESCO highlighted how her platform improved exam pass rates by 23% in pilot schools. Rionge has been featured in Forbes Africa and received the 2016 African Social Media Influencer Award. She currently serves on the board of UNICEF's East Africa advisory committee, advocating for digital inclusion policies.

In 2020, she launched the 'CodeGirls Africa' initiative providing free coding education to 50,000 young women, addressing both skills gaps and gender inequality. Her TED Talk "How I Brought Education to Rural Africa Through a Mobile Phone" has over 1.2 million views. Current projects include blockchain-based certification systems and AI-driven adaptive learning algorithms customized for multilingual African contexts.