Ubongo

Ubongo, Africa's primary edutainment organization, provides high-quality TV and radio educational programming for tens of millions of children across sub-Saharan Africa. Their content has been proven to boost literacy and numeracy skills at an extraordinarily low price per student.

What problem are they trying to solve?

In sub-Saharan Africa, 29% of children do not complete primary school, and many lack the resources to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills. Traditional educational interventions often struggle to reach children at scale, especially when it comes to the barrier of expanding effectively across different countries and languages. There is a particular need for innovative and evidence-based solutions that can reach millions of children at a low cost.

What do they do?

Ubongo creates and broadcasts engaging, culturally relevant educational programming for primary school-aged children. Their cartoon programs—Akili and Me, Ubongo Kids, and Nuzo and Namia—have been compared to Sesame Street in the United States, which, according to multiple long-term studies, has demonstrated lasting effects on numeracy, literacy, and future incomes by amounts similar to preschool access, at a fraction of the cost.

Ubongo works with governments to align content with national curricula content, focusing on improving foundational literacy and numeracy skills for children. What makes Ubongo particularly effective is their ability to create educational content that kids actually want to watch, while leveraging existing television and radio infrastructure to reach 43 million African households.

Why do we recommend them?

Ubongo has demonstrated their impact through rigorous evaluation and evidence-based programming. Their viewership figures indicate that they are experts at creating engaging content. Two academic evaluations of their program Akili and Me in Rwanda and Tanzania showed statistically significant learning gains, averaging 0.17 standard deviations in counting, number identification, and letter identification compared to control groups. These results are particularly impressive given the brief four-week exposure period in the studies.

They reach children at an exceptionally low cost—approximately £0.25 per child—which means their cost per student is over 20 times lower than typical alternatives. Even after applying discounts for uncertainty about effect persistence and generalizability, our analysis suggests that Ubongo remains one of the most cost-effective ways to improve long-term educational outcomes.

What would they do with more funding?

With additional funding, Ubongo could accelerate their plans to scale up. They’re working on adapting their programming for different languages and cultural contexts, deepening their reach into more countries, and partnering with more governments to improve curricula and content distribution. By contributing to Ubongo's expansion, you can support innovative approaches to education in sub-Saharan Africa and help millions of children access quality educational content.