Program expected to benefit up to an estimated 1.6 million children Unique collaboration will increase access to capital for schools and families with students in Africa, India, and Latin America
Nairobi, Kenya November 24, 2021 –Opportunity International, a longstanding global leader in providing financial services to lift people out of poverty, and Oikocredit, a social impact investor and worldwide cooperative promoting sustainable development through investments, today announced an innovative, three-year collaboration to increase access to and quality of education in low-income countries through the investment of up to USD $100 million in financial institutions who are benefiting from Opportunity International’s EduFinance program, reaching an estimated 1.6 million children at Movenpick Hotel Suites in Nairobi Kenya.
Speaking at the signing of the Memorandum, Caroline Mulwa Investments Manager Oikocredit East and Southern Africa, “We are very delighted for this great partnership between opportunity international and Oikocredit. Our main agenda is to provide social impact in the education sector. Through Opportunity international, they will provide technical assistance to financial institutions and to schools to enable them create sustainability and to enable the financial institutions develop a portfolio around the education sector. We envisage that there will be a financial gap and Oikocredit will then come in with the funding.”
“In Kenya the initial funding is envisaged to be around 20 million USD, which will be used to fund financial institutions who will then onlend to schools and parents. We will begin with 5 to 10 institutions who we hope can reach about 1000 schools across the country” She added.
Oikocredit and Opportunity International will mobilize the funds over the next three years with an initial, near-term focus on Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and Uganda. The collaboration is a distinctive agreement between tenured, mission-aligned global organizations to support the growth in access to quality education particularly for children from low-income families. Our effort helps to fight the global education crisis, which has left more than 617 million1 children worldwide either out of school, or in school but not reaching adequate levels of learning, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Over time, the collaboration plans to expand its reach in Africa, contributing materially to the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals #4 (Quality Education), and #17 (Partnerships for the Goals).
Under the terms of the agreement, both organizations will target financial institutions serving the needs of the most vulnerable populations, providing financial capital and training in support of the development of the education sector in the target markets. This collaboration will enable critical resources including school improvement loans for classrooms, washrooms, dormitories, teachers, and transportation; support school leaders with financial products to make instruction more effective; and provide loans for school fees and tuitions to keep students in the classroom.
Representing Opportunity International Andrew McCusker Head of Education Finance, “Our main aim is to get as many children to access schools as possible and we need more financial organizations lending to schools especially in Kenya, and to enable the children from dropping from schools. We are hopeful through this partnership we will be able to attract new lenders into the market. Kenya will be the first market that this fund will be available and the funds availability will definitely be soon through the on lenders.”
As a global leader in education finance in low-income countries, Opportunity’s EduFinance program has facilitated $442 million in loans to support the access to quality education. Opportunity’s EduFinance programming includes an Education Finance technical assistance facility and the Education Quality program
