Enko Education has announced its first debt raising for €1.5m with Oikocredit, a cooperative and social investment company based in the Netherlands.

Eric Pignot, Founder and CEO of Enko Education, said: “This loan will fuel the growth of Enko Education, particularly by financing the acquisition of existing establishments and the opening of new ones.”

Since 2014, Enko Education has been instrumental in revolutionising access for African students to a top-quality international education and the best universities in the world. 

Enko Education offers a launchpad to the best universities in the world for young African people, and provids prestigious international programmes and a unique university admission counselling programme.

The group opened its first school in September 2013 and now comprises nine schools, located in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mozambique and South Africa, and shares the ambition to launch further 30 schools in the next five years.

“We launched our first school in Senegal in September of this year, and are now looking to continue our development in the countries where we already have a presence, as well as in all the countries in the region where there is a need for more accessible international schools,” said Pignot. 

The Enko Education model is already generating brilliant results; students from the first graduating class are all now studying in universities as prestigious as Yale College in the United States, Sciences Po in France, the University of Toronto in Canada, the African Leadership University in Rwanda, or the Capital University of Economics and Business in China.

“Oikocredit is glad to start an exciting and fruitful partnership with Enko Education. We recognise the added value of Enko’s business and we align with the mission to widen the opportunities for high-quality education to the African population”, said Lygia Cesar, investment manager at Oikocredit.

Oikocredit has over 40 years’ experience in funding partner organisations active in inclusive finance (including microfinance), agriculture and renewable energy. 

Oikocredit’s loans, investments and capacity building aim to enable people living on low incomes to sustainably improve their living standards.