From Kenya to the US: How Paul Musumba Created an Education Company Serving Thousands
Paul Musumba, a Kenyan educator based in Philadelphia, has built a literacy support company that serves about 7,000 students each day across the United States.
Musumba attended Nairobi High School before studying Chemistry at the Kenya Polytechnic, now the Technical University of Kenya. In 2008, he moved to the United States to pursue further education.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Organic Chemistry from Drexel University in 2010 and later completed a master’s degree in Chemistry and Computer Science with Teaching at Temple University in 2016. His studies were supported through scholarships and government funding, which required him to teach at university level after completing his qualifications.
This commitment marked the beginning of his career in education.
Over the next seven years, Musumba taught high school chemistry, worked as a mathematics tutor and served as an adjunct lecturer.
During this period, he noticed that many students were progressing through school despite having difficulties with basic reading and comprehension skills. He concluded that these literacy challenges needed to be addressed before students could fully benefit from subjects such as chemistry.
In response, Musumba founded eduPrime LLC, a company focused on improving reading and comprehension skills through personalised tutoring and academic intervention programmes. What started as a local initiative has grown into a business with seven full-time employees and about 20 part-time tutors.
Today, eduPrime supports around 5,000 students daily in Philadelphia and a further 2,000 through a satellite office in Atlanta, Georgia. The company has also created opportunities for Kenyan professionals living abroad.
Musumba has recruited several Kenyans into key positions, including Charles as Head of Education and Programming, Angela in Procurement and Joel in Data Analysis. Musumba says life in the United States requires both hard work and careful planning.
He cautions against the belief that moving abroad automatically leads to financial success, pointing to the high cost of living and the challenges of establishing a career. Although he remains committed to education, Musumba says returning to teach in Kenya would be difficult.
His American qualifications are not automatically recognised by the Teachers Service Commission, and Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum requires additional accreditation.
