Ubongo Appoints Mwasi Wilmore as its new CEO

Ubongo, a pan-African non-profit social enterprise, has announced it appointment of Mwasi Wilmore as its new CEO to lead the organization into a new era of Pan-African growth and sustainable impact.

Mwasi joins Ubongo after spending the past few years leading and growing nonprofits and startups, as well as business and strategy consulting across Africa and around the world. She has worked with Fortune 100 companies like Citibank, Wachovia and Bank of America both in the US and on global projects. She then moved back to Tanzania, where she co-founded a 4G company, which she helped grow then sold to a mobile network. As a strategy consultant, she has advised organizations working across Africa on strategy, operations, technology, risk and project management. She is half Tanzanian and half American, and has lived in several countries across Africa, and brings with her a strong network and wealth of experience to Ubongo.

Beyond this deep sectoral experience, Mwasi has had a lifelong passion for education, and felt a strong pull to transition from the corporate space to working in education. From 2018, she joined and led Camara Education Tanzania, an education technology social enterprise, as their CEO for two years, where she first got to know Ubongo through the Discover Learning Project. She is a leader with a commitment to culture, people development, and helping everyone she works with bring out the best in themselves – the kind of organizational leader and people-developer Ubongo needs to scale its impact towards its big vision of transforming learning for all kids in Africa.

“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 spearhead the development and execution of a strategic plan for Ubongo's next chapter of growth. The goals include making free, localized edutainment for kids in all countries in sub-Saharan Africa, inclusively reaching 60 million kids by 2025 and growing an industry-leading Pan-African team and culture.

After more than 8 years at the helm, Co-Founder and outgoing CEO, Nisha Ligon will transition into a new and exciting role at Ubongo.

“Co-founding and leading Ubongo as CEO over the past 9 years has been the greatest adventure of my life,” said Nisha Ligon. “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 organization-builder who can sustainably nurture and grow Ubongo, our team and our impact. And I’m excited to say: we’ve found her!”

”We are excited to have Mwasi come on board to take Ubongo to the next level after Nisha’s tenure in building a solid foundation in bringing together a phenomenal team from Tanzania and expanding the reach across Africa”, added Ubongo Board chair Mbwana Alliy.

To learn more about this transition and other news from Ubongo, check out our 2021 annual report.