Ed Partners Africa provides loans to private schools that educate students from low-income households. The loans are used to improve school infrastructure and services so that low-fee private schools have the resources to educate and support their students.
Kenya has approximately 50,000 private schools, which educate 4 million students. Yet, 75% of 3rd grade students have not achieved minimum reading proficiency and more than 40% of 19-20 year olds have not met basic literacy levels. In major cities like Nairobi, more than 60% of students attend low-fee private schools. These schools lack access to formal credit mechanisms — 80% have never accessed a bank loan — and the resources to invest in school infrastructure.
Ed Partners Africa has developed the first non-banking financial tool to serve low-fee, affordable private schools, providing them access to credit to expand classrooms, purchase school buses, build sanitation facilities, and more. Through school-focused lending and a hub-and-spoke approach where relationship managers work closely with school leadership, Ed Partners seeks to close the credit gap for low-fee private schools that serve low-income populations.
Acumen’s investment, conducted through the Education Facility, is intended to improve access to credit for low-fee private schools and enable them to deliver quality education to their pupils. The investment will be used to help Ed Partners Africa serve more schools, with a goal of supporting an additional 40,000+ students in the coming year.
