Mastercard Foundation Launches EdTech Fellowship to Transform Learning in Uganda

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The Mastercard Foundation has unveiled a significant new initiative aimed at revolutionizing education across Uganda through technology. The newly launched EdTech Fellowship programme seeks to identify, support, and scale innovative digital learning solutions that can address some of the country’s most pressing education challenges.

Announced this week, the fellowship represents a strategic investment by the Foundation in homegrown EdTech talent and solutions. It will provide selected innovators, entrepreneurs, and organizations with funding, mentorship, technical assistance, and access to a broad network of experts to help them develop and expand impactful education technologies.

Uganda’s education sector continues to face serious structural issues. Millions of young people, particularly in rural and underserved communities, struggle with limited access to quality teaching materials, overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, and inadequate infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed these weaknesses, accelerating the need for more resilient and inclusive digital learning approaches.

The EdTech Fellowship will focus on supporting solutions that tackle these challenges directly. Priority areas include personalized learning platforms, digital content for local curricula, teacher training and support tools, AI-powered assessment systems, and technologies that promote inclusive education for students with disabilities. Special attention will be given to innovations that demonstrate strong potential to reach large numbers of learners, especially girls and young people from marginalized backgrounds.

Unlike many short-term grant programmes, the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship is designed as a multi-year commitment. Selected fellows will receive both financial support and comprehensive non-financial assistance, including business development guidance, product refinement support, and opportunities for partnerships with governments, schools, and other stakeholders.

This initiative builds on the Mastercard Foundation’s long history of investing in education and youth development across Africa. Over the years, the Foundation has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to education programmes, with a growing emphasis on leveraging technology to expand access and improve learning outcomes.

For Uganda’s emerging EdTech ecosystem, the fellowship comes as welcome news. Local innovators have often struggled with limited funding, weak infrastructure, and difficulty scaling their solutions. The programme aims to bridge these gaps by providing the resources and expertise needed to turn promising ideas into sustainable, high-impact ventures.

While specific details such as the total funding envelope, number of fellows per cohort, and exact application timeline are still being finalized, the Foundation has indicated that the programme will be competitive and focused on solutions with clear paths to scale and measurable impact on learning outcomes.

Education experts see this as a timely intervention. With Uganda’s youthful population and ambitious national development goals, improving the quality and reach of education through technology could have far-reaching economic and social benefits. Digital learning tools have the potential to supplement traditional classroom teaching, support remote learning in hard-to-reach areas, and better prepare students for the demands of a digital economy.

The launch of the EdTech Fellowship also reflects a broader trend across Africa, where philanthropic organizations and development partners are increasingly backing locally driven technology solutions rather than importing foreign models. By investing in Ugandan innovators, the Mastercard Foundation hopes to foster sustainable solutions that are deeply rooted in local realities and needs.

Applications for the first cohort are expected to open in the coming weeks. Interested EdTech entrepreneurs, startups, and organizations are encouraged to prepare strong proposals that clearly demonstrate their innovation’s potential to transform learning experiences for Ugandan students.

As the programme rolls out, it will be closely watched by stakeholders across East Africa. If successful, the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship could serve as a model for similar initiatives in other countries facing comparable education challenges, helping to accelerate digital transformation in African education systems.