Enko Education, a private school network founded by Cyrille Nkontchou and Eric Pignot, has raised $2.2 million from Proparco, the French development finance institution, and Investisseurs & Partenaires, the Africa-focused private equity impact investment firm.
The investment will enable Enko Education finance the first years of operation of its existing schools as well as the launch of new schools in 2016 and 2017. It will also support the development of a quality education offer by a private player targeting the African middle class and will complement the efforts being made by governments, assisted by AFD, Proparco’s parent company. This initiative will, in the long run, create over 1,300 jobs, half of which being teachers who will receive extensive training.
After two successful schools launches in Cameroon and Mozambique and an acquisition in South Africa, Enko Education will be opening three new secondary schools in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire at the start of the September 2016 school term. Within the next five years, Enko Education expects to open over thirty schools, predominantly in francophone and Southern Africa.
Enko Education’s economic model relies on partnerships with local private schools. The local partner brings knowledge of the local education system, connections with school parents and infrastructures to the table. Enko Education provides education engineering, innovative teaching methods and curricula to obtain “International Baccalaureate” (IB) certification within a year. Enko Education is also responsible for the schools’ development and management (hiring of a highly experienced head of school and teaching staff, student enrolment, school administration, etc.).
The ambition of Enko Education’s schools is to enable young and talented Africans to enrol in the best international universities by giving them a cost-effective access to an internationally-recognized curriculum.
