Isaya Yunge

Last updated
Isaya Yunge
Isaya Yunge.jpg
Born
Isaya Yunge

23 March 1990 (1990-03-23) (age 33)
Tanzania
EducationThe Institute of Finance Management, University of Cambridge
OccupationInternet entrepreneur
Years active2007–present
TitleChief Executive Officer at GOODSAM Technologies, and Co-founder at Smart Kaya, LLC
Website goodsam.co.tz
smartkaya.com
somapp.org
isayayunge.com

Isaya Yunge (born 23 March 1990) is a Tanzanian internet entrepreneur, speaker and first African J8 delegate to speak at the G8 2007 Summit. He was one of the two Tanzanians who received the Queen's Young Leader Award in 2018 as a recognition for his work to use a scholarship-matching mobile App (SomaApp) [1] [2] that help more than 7000 [3] young African people to progress in their education. [4] [5] He co-founded SomaApp a mobile application which enables African students to search for scholarships. [6] [7] [8]

Contents

In 2007 he was selected by UNICEF to be the UNICEF Africa Youth Ambassador [9] and in this position at an age of 17's he spoke at the G8 2007 Summit as UNICEF Africa Youth Ambassador in Berlin Germany. [10] [11] In 2019 Yunge was named by Avance media to be among the Tanzania's 50 most influential young People. [12]

Early life

Isaya was born and raised in Mwanza, a rock city on the shores of Lake Victoria in northern Tanzania. His parents divorced when he was a little boy, which led him to move from one foster home to another. Although he believed that education was his way out of poverty, he was late to join primary education until the age of 7. Before then, he spent his time herding animals while his peers attended school. [13]

Despite those dire circumstances, Isaya's imagination was not limited as he was a great admirer of Nelson Mandela and dreamed of one day becoming a leader like him. He was determined to break the cycle of poverty and create a better life for himself and his family.

Failing to find acceptance from his own family, Isaya lived part of his childhood in the city of Mwanza where he witnessed the life of street children. There he learned the plight of street children and when he finally joined secondary education he spent his free time bringing together street children and giving them lessons in English and basic mathematics. At the age of 16 Isaya under Sauti ya Watoto Club convinced  Radio Free Africa, a local radio station, to create a segment, with him as a host, to bring street children on radio to talk about their life in the streets. The goal was to create empathy in the public for street children. The segment was hugely successful, attracting funding from UNICEF and running for six years with Isaya and members of Sauti ya Watoto Club hosting it for four years. This work highlighted Isaya's contribution to social and community development, and as a result he was selected by UNICEF to serve as UNICEF African Youth Ambassador. In his tenure as UNICEF Africa Youth Ambassador he attended the G8 summit where he was invited by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. [14] [15]

During his university days, at The Institute of Finance Management Isaya started sharing fully funded opportunities to other students to participate in international conferences, workshops and aiming at exposing them to the world where they could gain knowledge and network with other young people.. He began collecting information on these opportunities and sharing them through WhatsApp groups with the student community. Isaya would learn of the frustration students faced applying for scholarships and the very low percentage of students making it into advanced level education. He invented SomApp to address this and the systemic challenges in accessing advanced level education for Tanzanians. [16] [17] [18] [19]

Career

Yunge's enthusiasm in technology industry emerged in 2014 and his visibility increased when he attended a talk with the American economist Jeremy Rifkin on the topic of the fourth industrial revolution, the sharing economy and collaborative commons. [20] He founded SOMAPP Foundation (SomApp) (Soma a Swahili word for Study) a mobile application that helps students to search for scholarships for studies purposes. [21] [22] [23] [24] In 2018 Yunge was mentioned by Forbes to be among 40 African entrepreneurs who represented the continent at the Forbes 30 under 30 Summit in Boston Massachusetts [25] and one of the upcoming Tanzanian billionaires [26] where he spoke with CNBC Africa about the opportunities which the summit could bring to the coming entrepreneurs. [27] Apart from SomApp, Yunge founded other products such as KAYA, a smart speaker using artificial intelligence to collect African related data. [28] He also founded Somafit, smart watch that helps to measures blood pressure and heart beat rate using instantaneous health condition of the user. [29] [30] In his 17's he was among the HIV/AIDS educators who persuaded his fellow youth to abstain from the disease. [31]

Leadership and awards

Related Research Articles

Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region. The company offers mobile telephony, mobile money transfer, consumer electronics, ecommerce, cloud computing, data, music streaming, and fibre optic services. It is most renowned as the home of M-PESA, a mobile banking SMS-based service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">34th G8 summit</span> 2008 international leaders meeting

The 34th G8 summit was held in the town of Tōyako, Hokkaido, Japan, on July 7–9, 2008. The locations of previous summits hosted by Japan include Tokyo and Nago, Okinawa (2000). The G8 summit has evolved beyond being a gathering of world political leaders to become an occasion for a wide variety of non-governmental organizations, activists and civic groups to congregate and discuss a multitude of issues.

Post-Kyoto negotiations refers to high level talks attempting to address global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Generally part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), these talks concern the period after the first "commitment period" of the Kyoto Protocol, which expired at the end of 2012. Negotiations have been mandated by the adoption of the Bali Road Map and Decision 1/CP.13.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Litman</span> American entrepreneur and angel investor (born 1973)

Eric Austin Litman is an American entrepreneur and angel investor, and currently serves as CEO of the robotics health technology company, Aescape, inc. Litman co-founded Proxicom, built Viaduct from a one-man shop through a merger with the Wolf Group, and was the founder and CEO of Medialets, a mobile ad serving and advertising analytics company acquired by WPP plc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology</span> School in Accra, Ghana

The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is an Africa-wide technology entrepreneur training program, seed fund, and incubator headquartered in Accra, Ghana. The three-phased institution was founded in 2008 to provide training, investment, and mentoring for aspiring technology entrepreneurs with the goal of creating globally successful companies that create wealth and jobs locally in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amol Sarva</span> American entrepreneur

Amol Sarva is an American entrepreneur who founded Knotel, Halo Neuroscience, Knote, Peek, and Virgin Mobile USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile technology in Africa</span>

Mobile technology in Africa is a fast growing market. Nowhere is the effect more dramatic than in Africa, where mobile technology often represents the first modern infrastructure of any kind. Over 10% of Internet users are in Africa. However, 50% of Africans have mobile phones and their penetration is expanding rapidly. This means that mobile technology is the largest platform in Africa, and can access a wide range of income groups. AppsAfrica reports Mobile App downloads has surpassed 98 billion which is a very huge benefit for mobile app developers in Africa

<span class="mw-page-title-main">January Makamba</span> Tanzanian politician

January Yusuf Makamba is a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Bumbuli constituency since 2010.

Up to the second half of the 20th century, Tanzanian literature was primarily oral. Major oral literary forms include folktales, poems, riddles, proverbs, and songs. The majority of the oral literature in Tanzania that has been recorded is in Swahili, though each of the country's languages has its own oral tradition. The country's oral literature is currently declining because of social changes that make transmission of oral literature more difficult and because of the devaluation of oral literature that has accompanied Tanzania's development. Tanzania's written literary tradition has produced relatively few writers and works; Tanzania does not have a strong reading culture, and books are often expensive and hard to come by. Most Tanzanian literature is orally performed or written in Swahili, and a smaller number of works have been published in English. Major figures in Tanzanian modern literature include Shaaban Robert, Muhammed Said Abdulla, Aniceti Kitereza, Ebrahim Hussein, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Penina Muhando.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Fabian</span> Polish-American technologist

Christopher Fabian is a technologist who works for UNICEF. He founded technology and finance initiatives in both the public and private sector, including the creation in 2006, of UNICEF's Innovation Unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goodwall</span>

Goodwall is an app that aims to provide young people with opportunities to develop their skills and access educational and work-related opportunities. The platform is designed primarily for the Gen Z demographic and allows members to create a digital profile to showcase their skills and achievements using photos and videos. Users are encouraged to engage in skills-based challenges and online programs focusing on transferable skills such as problem-solving, creativity, and communication. The Goodwall app is available on both iOS and Android.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Product Hunt</span>

Product Hunt is an American website to share and discover new products. It was founded by Ryan Hoover in November 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick E. Ngowi</span> Tanzanian entrepreneur

Patrick Epaphra Ngowi is a Tanzanian entrepreneur, businessperson, environmentalist, Al Gore's climate change reality leader and United Nation's SDG 7 Pioneer. Patrick has founded and led several businesses over the course of his career.

Jumia Travel is an online travel agency providing online hotel reservations across the African continent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jiji Africa</span> African online marketplace

Jiji is an African online marketplace that provides buyers and sellers with an avenue to meet and exchange goods and services.

inDrive, is an international ride-hailing service with more than 200 million downloads operating in 700 cities in more than 45 countries. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, it is the second largest ridesharing and taxi app worldwide by downloads. The company was officially launched in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vlad Tenev</span> Bulgaria-born American entrepreneur

Vladimir Tenev is a Bulgarian-American entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, a US-based financial technology services company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fondation Botnar</span> Swiss philanthropic foundation

Fondation Botnar is a philanthropic foundation based in Basel, Switzerland. The foundation was founded in 2003 by Marcela Botnar, wife of businessman and philanthropist Octav Botnar. It is one of the largest foundations in Switzerland, holding CHF 3.8 billion in assets. Fondation Botnar champions the use of AI and digital technologies to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people in growing urban environments. The foundation provides a range of funding opportunities to enable research and innovative projects that fit within its strategic focus.

Nii Osae Osae Dade is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and a computer scientist. He is the co-founder and director of both Mazzuma and Utopia Technologies: two companies in the digital commerce space for emerging markets. He is the Director of Software engineering for Mazzuma.

Kehinde Korede Ipaye is a Nigerian business executive. He is the CEO of Arbitos Oil & Gas Limited. He is also the founder of FinTech company RocketPay.

References

  1. ↑ THE QUEEN'S YOUNG LEADERS (2018). "Isaya Yunge" . Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  2. ↑ "Inspiring Tanzanian duo to be hounoured by Queen Elizabeth | The Citizen". www.thecitizen.co.tz. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
  3. ↑ BBC, SWAHILI (2018-06-08). "Isaya Yunge: Kijana Mtanzania anayetarajiwa kufanikiwa sana katika teknolojia". BBC. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  4. ↑ "Using app to quench thirst for knowledge". The Citizen. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  5. ↑ "History Hero BLAST". History Hero BLAST. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  6. ↑ "How this disruptor is helping those in need with bursaries". CNBC Africa. 2018-07-13. Retrieved 2020-08-06.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. ↑ database-control (2020-04-07). "Meet Isaya Yunge – CEO SomaApps Technologies". Summit Recruitment & Search. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  8. ↑ "TEDxOysterbay | TED".
  9. ↑ database-control (2020-04-07). "Meet Isaya Yunge – CEO SomaApps Technologies". Summit Recruitment & Search. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  10. ↑ "Young people gather to debate global issues at Junior 8 Summit in Germany". UNICEF. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  11. ↑ https://panos.blogs.com/africavox2007/2007/06/the_j9_at_the_g.html Africa vox 2007-African voices at the G8
  12. ↑ "Most Influential Young Tanzanians" . Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  13. ↑ "Meet Isaya Yunge – CEO SomaApps Technologies – Summit Recruitment & Search". www.summitrecruitment-search.com. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  14. ↑ "Isaya Yunge | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker". www.ashoka.org. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  15. ↑ "G8 Gipfel 2007 Heiligendamm - Die Zukunft mitbestimmen". www.g-8.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  16. ↑ "G8 Gipfel 2007 Heiligendamm - Die Zukunft mitbestimmen". www.g-8.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  17. ↑ "Junior-8-Gipfel: Was die Staatschefs von der Jugend lernten - WELT". DIE WELT (in German). 2012-05-02. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  18. ↑ NACHRICHTEN, n-tv. "Jugendlichen zeige ihre Sicht". n-tv.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  19. ↑ wn. "Die Jugendlichen reden mit". www.wn.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  20. ↑ database-control (2020-04-07). "Meet Isaya Yunge – CEO SomaApps Technologies". Summit Recruitment & Search. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  21. ↑ "Using app to quench thirst for knowledge". The Citizen. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  22. ↑ BBC (2019-03-29). "More African governments are censoring the internet" . Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  23. ↑ "Vijana changamoto zisiwakatishe tamaa bali ziwape chachu ya kusonga mbele- Isaya". Habari za UN (in Swahili). 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  24. ↑ "Isaya Yunge – Alliance For AI" . Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  25. ↑ Africa, Forbes (June 4, 2018). "Under 30 Technology". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  26. ↑ BBC, SWAHILI (2018-06-08). "Isaya Yunge: Kijana Mtanzania anayetarajiwa kufanikiwa sana katika teknolojia". BBC. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  27. ↑ "How the Forbes Under 30 Summit is developing African entrepreneurs". CNBC Africa. 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  28. ↑ news.un.org. "UN News Kiswahili/ Assumpta Massoi-Ili Afrika tuzifikie SDGs kwa ubora, inabidi tuanze kukusanya takwimu zetu sisi wenyewe-Isaya Yunge". UN. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  29. ↑ BBC (2019-03-29). "More African governments are censoring the internet" . Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  30. ↑ "Vijana changamoto zisiwakatishe tamaa bali ziwape chachu ya kusonga mbele- Isaya". Habari za UN (in Swahili). 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  31. ↑ https://panos.blogs.com/africavox2007/2007/06/the_j9_at_the_g.html Africa vox 2007-African voices at the G8
  32. ↑ "Using app to quench thirst for knowledge". The Citizen. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  33. ↑ "History Hero BLAST". History Hero BLAST. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  34. ↑ database-control (2020-04-07). "Meet Isaya Yunge – CEO SomaApps Technologies". Summit Recruitment & Search. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  35. ↑ "Coding, collaboration and competition: The 2017 Mobile Money Hackathon in Dar es Salaam". Mobile for Development. 2017-07-27. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  36. ↑ database-control (2020-04-07). "Meet Isaya Yunge – CEO SomaApps Technologies". Summit Recruitment & Search. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.