09/08/2026
Isaiah Yunge Broke the Poverty Ceiling to Dine with the Kings and Queens.
According to Forbes, he was born to parents who never married.
He was an outcast, raised by his grandmother in a home marked by extreme poverty.
As a child he herded goats and cows. He worked on rice plantations, moving from one foster home to another after being rejected by step-parents.
By his second year in secondary school, he was living independently. After classes he worked to pay for food and rent.
In 2014, everything changed. He attended a lecture by American economist Jeremy Rifkin on the fourth industrial revolution and collaborative commons.
That day something in him broke and rebuilt. He became convinced that digital solutions could solve Africa’s biggest problems.
That is how he founded Somaapps Technologies, the company behind SomaApp, a mobile platform that connects students to international scholarship opportunities.
The idea was born from pain. Too many scholarships go unclaimed every year because young people who qualify never get to hear about them.
Today, the boy who once herded goats got engaged to the daughter of a sitting President, at a ceremony attended by the who is who in the region.