Equity chairman expands investment portfolio with girls school

Equity Bank chairman Peter Munga has deepened his investments in the education sector with a girls’ secondary school in Thika that is expected to have its first intake January next year.

The facility sits on 75 acres of land and will be offering 8-4-4 curriculum with a keen focus on leadership and entrepreneurship.

“The idea is to grow our brand in the education sector with more emphasis on entrepreneurship as a key mover to economic growth and self-reliance,” Mr Munga told the Business Daily in an interview on Monday at his office in Muthaiga, Nairobi.

He said the school will be enrolling  Form one and Form two students with facilities able  to accommodate 700 students. It is targeting middle class and upper middle class. The school will also be offering Chinese lessons as well as aviation.

However, Mr Munga  did not disclose the capital injection for the new venture and how much the school will be charging. The school is located one kilometre from Thika town.

This is not the first stab for Mr Munga to invest in the sector. He is the founder of the 15-year-old Pioneer High School in Maragua, Murang’a, which has a student population of 1,500. Mr Munga also owns St. Paul’s Thomas Academy, which operates in the same neighbourhood.

He is also the chairman of Pioneer International University (PIU), a Nairobi-based institution of higher learning that started as a college in 2005 but moved to offer degree programmes last year after it received a letter of interim authority from the regulator.

The emerging opportunities in the education sector targeting both upper and middle class have seen  more investors consider the Kenyan market for growth and expansion plans with the latest entry being South African-based Nova Academies which has entered into the market through local partnership.

Nova Academies is also set to open in January targeting to admit 100 students. It is a boys’ boarding school offering 8-4-4 education with a keen focus on leadership and entrepreneurship.

Christopher Khaemba former principal of The Alliance High School is the local partner where together with other foreign investors have invested Sh300 million.

Mr Khaemba is also Nairobi County executive for education, youth affairs, children, culture and social services.

The school is set on five acres of land and is located in Kikuyu, Kiambu County. The investors also plan to open more than 10 such schools in Kenya over the next five years.

Educas, a United Kingdom-based private equity firm, also recently completed the buyout of Brookhouse School for Sh3.6 billion targeting returns in the competitive education sector in Kenya.