Providing equitable access to skills-based education for remote populations.

Samson Wambuzi is the co-founder and chief innovations officer of Yiya Solutions, an organization that uses innovative educational technology to create equitable access to skills-based education across Uganda. With only 30 percent of Ugandan youth enrolled in secondary school, Samson’s organization seeks to overcome the steep educational barriers under-resourced youth in rural areas face. After surveying the needs of hundreds of out-of-school girls, Yiya Solutions launched an innovative, offline, virtual classroom designed for remote learning using only radio and keypad phones. Since 2016, Yiya has engaged more than 34,000 students, and its offline application has garnered more than 2.7 million interactions. Samson grew up in a rural area with limited resources, and his childhood experiences have shaped Yiya's mission. Through the Scholars program, he aims to refine his approach to increasing the accessibility of Yiya’s experiential curriculum and develop a strategy for expansion to new regions.

Samson was a recipient of the Social Innovation Moonshot Fellowship with the Kravis Lab for Social Impact at Claremont Mckenna College in California and was a participant in the Collaborative Learning Initiative with the Issroff Family Foundation. Samson holds a bachelor’s degree in science education from Makerere University and he was a member of the 2019 class of the Obama Foundation Leaders program in Africa. 

Biography current as of 2023-2024 program year