Usiku Games has enhanced its platform to allow tutors to continue providing private tuition after the government announced that learners will return to school in January. 

This comes after Usiku Games piloted the “Gumzo For Schools”, a video conferencing system designed specifically for e-learning in Africa.

The new platform enables professional tutors to host online lessons and are able to pick up students for online classes based on their expertise and an online schedule.

“Gumzo for Tutors saves time and easily fits lessons into a tutor’s schedule wherever he/she is. We believe this platform will offer more opportunities to tutors to continue earning and continue imparting knowledge to students who are now isolated at home as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Jay Shapiro, the founder and CEO of Usiku Games.

The platform offers a 14-day trial and tutors register using their mobile numbers for verification then create a customized classroom using their accounts and invite students to begin a session.


Usiku Games said all calls are encrypted to ensure all calls are private and protected.

“Our platform is secure, reliable, and easy to access for both the tutors and the students. Using the mobile verification system for registered numbers we can ensure that the right tutors join the platform to avoid any scams or cyber-attacks that have been rampant during this Covid-19 pandemic,” he added.

Tutors can also record their sessions and use them later for class reviews or send to students who cannot attend lessons in real-time.

“Our recording capabilities on Gumzo enables students and teachers to refer to their sessions thereafter. The files from the recordings are secure and stored in the universal MP4 format that can be replayed on a wide variety of devices.”

Gumzo for Schools and Gumzo for Tutors are improved versions of Africa’s first web-based video-conferencing platform - Gumzo - and was developed in May by Kenyan developers based at Usiku Games.

Gumzo said it uses local phone number verification and real-names to ensure a safety for all users and hosts can review the live video, name and phone number of each attendee before allowing them into the classroom.

Africa boasts of more than 350 million internet-connected smartphones and Gumzo is compatible with most Android and IOS gadgets as it is purely mobile browser-based.