Kenyan ed-tech startup Eneza Education was named the winner in the “Best Mobile Innovation for Education” category at the GSMA’s Global Mobile (GLOMO) Awards last week for its Shupavu291 innovation launched in partnership with Safaricom.
Launched in 2012, Eneza Education uses low-cost mobile technology to give users educational lessons and assessments using SMS, web and Android platforms.
Disrupt Africa reported in March 2016 the startup had partnered with Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom to roll out Shupavu 291, a revision study tool that works through SMS and USSD.
Shupavu 291 enables students to take quizzes, search subjects and topics to study, and access Wikipedia summaries without requiring any internet connection. With the service, teachers and parents can check reports on individual student performance and school performance via SMS.
The GLOMO Awards, considered to be “the Oscars of the mobile industry”, recognise and celebrate contributions made to the evolving and developing mobile industry, with this year’s edition taking place at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona last week. Alongside Safaricom, Eneza was named the winner in the “Best Mobile Innovation for Education” category.
“A remarkably accessible innovation with broad reach, this affordable service is proving that effective mobile services can have a hugely positive impact on education levels,” the judges said.
Eneza’s partnership with Safaricom was extended further in October 2016, when the startup received an undisclosed amount of funding from the operator’s Spark Venture Fund.
