“After two years of servicing Middle Eastern education agencies from Berlin, I am delighted to now work in Beirut,” said Agent Relations & Business Development Manager, Nabil Najd. “This will allow me to be closer to my clients, not only in this immediate area but also in the Gulf countries and North Africa.”

Najd told The PIE that Saudi Arabia would be one of the key countries that ICEF intended to serve via its regional office.

“Today, Saudi Arabia is among the leading countries in annual expenditure on education. The Saudi market had huge growth during the last eight years, and it’s clear that growth is still going up, at least for next few years,” he said.

He also signalled that a population boom meant he expected interest in study abroad to rise from many countries in the region.

“The MENA region’s rapidly growing population and significant oil revenues has offered a captive market for the educational industry. The population in the MENA region is expected to skyrocket by over 62 per cent from 432 million in 2007 to 700 million by 2050, even exceeding Europe’s population in that year.”

The Lebanon office is the ninth regional office for ICEF.