By Patrick Nduwimana
Michael Odokara-Okigbo is a singer and songwriter born in the United States to Nigerian-American parents, who were also U.S.-born. He grew up in Portland, Maine, and attended Dartmouth College where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. Beyond music, he is also a tech entrepreneur. He is currently the CEO of NKENNE and NKENNE AI, a learning app he founded in 2021. He says he built a technology that speaks in the tones, textures, and truths of African languages.
The platform supports 25 languages and has more than 470,000 users globally. The app was named after his mother, Shalom Nkenne Odokara, who is also Michael’s business partner
Michael comes from the Igbo tribe, one of the major ethnic groups in southeastern Nigeria.
“Growing up, I never learned Igbo, which is my native language, my tribe in Nigeria. My mom was a single mom; she was hustling, working, trying to do the best she could. So she said, if you can’t find a solution to help you learn, you have to make that solution. So, we came up with this entity. It is named after her middle name. It teaches the languages that were the origins of human language, which came from the continent of Africa. We are teaching the foundations of language to individuals who want to learn or connect to the history of the continent,” he told Amjambo Africa in a phone interview.
Michael says the app helped him to practice Igbo and stay connected with Nigeria and its people. He travels to Nigeria five to six times a year. Through the app, he also learned and became fluent in Nigerian Pidgin, a language spoken by an estimated 75 million people across Nigeria.
“I have had to learn Igbo and Pidgin because in Nigeria, business is done with Pidgin. I am always there now, which is like a major blessing, especially nowadays where things are bad. It’s a blessing to come from two countries. I am proud to come from the United States, and I am also proud to come from Nigeria, and both countries do have their pluses and minuses. It’s good to learn and see how maybe you can improve where you come from on both coasts, just by how things were kind of moving. So, it’s been a massive blessing,” he said.
Things weren’t easy at the beginning, as is the case with any new project, but today, the app keeps growing.
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“Now we have a lot of teammates, but it was not easy. It was not easy to raise money, and the way to earn money was by going to investors. For some reason, investors weren’t so interested in this technology. We had to rely on grants; I used my music earnings as well to fund it at times when we were just starting off. But by God’s grace, we were able to become what we are now. We have contracts with the U.S. federal government now, we have a partnership deal with Nigeria’s federal government, and all that really came not only by giving 150%, but by having a team that believed in the mission—my mother, and so many other people who really go above and beyond and believe in the project and the vision. So, we are very lucky and very blessed for real,” he said, with great satisfaction.
Many African languages severely lack educational infrastructure, but when Michael decided to build the NKENNE app, he was able to gather curriculum data for languages like Igbo, Amharic, and Zulu.
“I have to give a special shout-out to both my mother, Shalom Nkenne Odokara, and Ngozi Ikechukwu, who is our VP. They lead that and have done an incredible job getting curricula, tutors, auditors, and translators to create a specialized program that allows our customers and community members to study and learn these languages,” he said.
NKENNE is not only a teaching and learning app, but it has also expanded from a consumer app into NKENNE Artificial Intelligence, an AI translation app supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
“The NSF was really an incredible opportunity, and I have to give thanks to the Maine Technology Institute because they were essential in helping us coordinate and finalize our strategy to apply. We have been able to get Phase I and Phase II awards with it. It is something that has never been commercialized, but our team has successfully commercialized our AI translation entity. We are going to be adding speech-to-text and text-to-speech functionalities, which in a few weeks will be another landmark opportunity for us. The NSF has been incredibly important during this process,” he said.
The company’s goal is to cover hundreds of languages in the coming years. Michael’s country of origin, Nigeria, alone has 500 distinct languages. The question here is: how will he decide which language to tackle next? One might guess that building a tonally sensitive AI for African languages could be a very challenging task compared to Western languages.
“We are still a small business, so I have to think of the bottom line. And that’s something that my mother and I go back and forth on. It has to be something that makes money for the company so we can then sustain ourselves, because I never want to be in a situation where I have to rely on people. We don’t want to rely on investors; we want to make sure that the business is sustainable so it can grow on its own. That’s how we have been able to gain these contracts.”
Haitian Creole has been added alongside other African languages, and the choice was made for a particular reason.
“We focus on African languages, but we wanted to add Haitian Creole because, as my mother said, the Haitians fought back, and it is a culture that definitely needs to be preserved and protected. I live in both Portland and New York City, so I see Haitian culture all the time. It’s awesome. So, we wanted to celebrate that culture and connect it to other African languages as we continue to grow,” he explained.
Michael’s mother, Shalom Nkenne Odokara, joined the interview with Amjambo Africa to explain how proud she is of her son.
“From the age of 12, we would participate in the Festival of Nations with different ethnic groups and nations. He is a musician; he has sung in different languages. He has always had this love of knowing who he is and where he came from. As a single mother, I really did not teach him Igbo; that is where his love of African languages came from. He has been learning on his own, and I am very proud of him. I am also proud of the businessman he is,” she said.
Michael says working with a parent as your business partner is not the easiest thing, but for him, she is the person he can trust the most. He recognized that sometimes they have strong, tough conversations because they want things to go well.
Both Michael and his mother are working hard so that their business can be sustainable.
“[Michael] is mindful of that, because a lot of companies led by people of color close within a few years. He is very mindful that we survive,” she said.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the early August 2026 print edition of Amjambo Africa.
