The acquisition of the Lekki-Lagos campus of American International School, designed to provide quality education for American and non-American expatriates in Nigeria, shows the hidden investment opportunities in the education sector.
The school was bought by an ex-Nigerian banker and entrepreneur through his foundation for an undisclosed sum, sources familiar with the matter told BusinessDay. The new owner will add the school to his other school with operations in the eastern part of Nigeria.
This move means James Hope College, already popular in the Agbor area of Delta State, is going to get its first foothold in the south-west geopolitical zone of Nigeria renowned for academic excellence.
Established six years ago, James Hope College (JHC), which offers a combination of British and Nigerian curricula, has strived to sustain outstanding performance among its students through hard and smart work, helping to build enough momentum for continual growth over a short period of time.
The school is a Cambridge Associate School, a member of Council of British International Schools (COBIS) and Association of British Schools Overseas (AoBSO).
JHC is in partnership with Microsoft Imagine Academy and GL Education. It is accredited by Cambridge Assessment of International Education (CAIE), Pearson Edexcel Examinations, and British Schools Overseas (BSO).
With the acquisition of the American School’s property, James Hope College is coming to Lagos next September to offer the outstanding academic services it is known for in Agbor.
“We are interested in restoring the value of education. I will like to see the infrastructure that is much better, the teachers much better and teacher training blossoming,” Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, former vice-chancellor, University of Lagos, said at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in Lagos last month.
The latest acquisition is not an isolated case. There is renewed hope for education financing in Nigeria as private equity firms invest in both mid and high-end private secondary schools to drive expansion initiatives amid growing interest among parents to educate children in such schools.
Verod Capital Management, Nigeria-based private equity firm, in July 2017 acquired a stake in Greensprings School, one of Nigeria’s leading private secondary schools located in Anthony and Lekki, both in Lagos, bringing the number of its investment in private secondary schools to five. This was designed to enable Greensprings restructure its capital base and fund growth initiatives.
“Greensprings has a long track record of academic excellence and is led by an experienced CEO and management team,” said Eric Idiahi, partner at Verod, in a statement announcing the deal. “We believe in the company’s growth potential and are thrilled about its expansion plans both in the traditional education space and in ancillary services – supplementary education and teacher training.”
The private equity firm said it expects that the segment will continue to grow owing to increasing affordability for the middle class and the Nigerian government’s increasing role as a steward and enabler rather than a provider of public education.
“As public-sector budgets get tighter, educational administrators are under more and more pressure to find new ways to do more with less and that opens the door to a wider field of public-private partnerships,” Gossy Ukanwoke, a higher education investor and founder at Nigeria-based Beni American University Research and Development, said in a phone interview.
This is not uniquely Nigerian. Across Africa, a new education funding model has emerged in Angola and Ghana, involving private equity firms. In Nigeria, this will help narrow down funding gap, improve accountability and increase transparency in resource allocation.
AfricInvest, a U$1 billion asset, mid-market private equity firm, backed International Community School, a private school in Ghana, in a preferential share deal in 2017. The investment is the sixth for AfricInvest’s third private equity fund, which was 50 percent deployed at the time. The capital will be used to upgrade the school’s facilities and help support its expansion plans within Ghana, as well as the broader West African region.
Similarly, ABO Capital, an Angolan investment firm, has acquired Complexo Escolar Privado Internacional in Luanda, Angola’s capital city, reinforcing the evolving trend. Terms of the deal for the 768-pupil facility remain undisclosed. Also known as the Turkish School, CEPI started life in 2007 and enrolment has expanded consistently.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
