Abdinoor Ali

Bold Question: What if we valued our mother tongue and every child was taught using their first language?

Path to Metis: Born and raised in Wajir County, Abdi’s academic journey was greatly hindered by the language barrier brought about the disparity between the curriculum and his native language. This made acquisition of basic reading and writing skills an issue which he faced until class 7. The realization that this was a prevalent struggle amongst thousands of children in the area and beyond is what would later motivate him to innovate and come up with M-Lugha, an app that translates the school syllabus into local indigenous languages.

After completing his undergraduate studies, he worked as a fibre technician at a telecom company for a decade. During his time here, he moved from a junior technician to regional head. Despite his success in the telecom industry, the sad state of affairs of education in his region greatly bothered him. Mass exam failure, high school and university students struggling with fluency and grammar and an endless streak of incompetencies that was evident through students.

His breakout moment came when he was posted in Nakuru as a regional operation and maintenance head where he had so much spare time that he decided to pursue an MSc Education Technology! He would use this knowledge to provide technology-based solutions to the education crisis. After graduation and extensive research, he decided to improve the literacy crisis first by translating the early childhood education curriculum to mother tongue for easy understanding and learning.

This is how the revolutionary M-Lugha App was birthed. Fast forward, M-Lugha App was voted best 100 startups worldwide at startup Istanbul, Best 11 Startups selected to pitch at Africa Tech summit and covered by BBC, VOA, CITIZEN, KTN, NTV, RTN, STN, KUTV, HORIZON TV, DAILY NATION, THE STANDARD, PEOPLE DAILY and many other local and international media outlets.

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