When I was in high school in Botswana in 2016–17, getting study material online was genuinely hard. I had no WiFi at home, so I relied on mobile data bundles, specifically nighttime bundles. I'd pay P10 (about $1) for "nightsurfer" bundles that only worked from midnight till 5am. I'd stay up at night to download the study material I needed. Sometimes I'd fall asleep and lose my P10.

Despite not having wifi, I always found a way onto WhatsApp - through data bundles, or a hotspot from my mother or from neighbours. And so did almost every other student around me. WhatsApp data bundles are cheap and widely available across Southern Africa. I started to wonder: what if a tutor could live there too?

Naledi AI is a response to that disparity. I want to give students in similar conditions something I wish I had when I was in high school. Naledi is an AI tutor that understands local syllabi and tailors lessons precisely to the needs of the students. Right now Naledi understands BGCSE (Botswana GCSE syllabus for high schoolers) and IGCSE Physics and Mathematics. Students can download past papers, get explanations, revise concepts, and have full tutoring sessions, all via WhatsApp.

Next on the roadmap: ZIMSEC (Zimbabwe) and the Zambian syllabi. The goal is simple: no student in Southern Africa should be locked out of quality education because of a data bundle.