International education company Scholé Limited, which runs schools in southern and eastern Africa, has expanded its foothold on the continent, acquiring a controlling stake in Kenya-based Makini Schools.
The company is partnering with South African giant Advtech Group and US education and healthcare investment firm Caerus Capital LLC, to acquire all four schools owned by Makini Schools, which are popular with Kenyan and foreign students, and is also one of the biggest in the East African region.
“We have decided the time is right to introduce international educationists”
The acceptance of foreign investment will hopefully drive improved standards, Makini explained.
“We have always strived to improve standards at Makini and wished to establish the schools as centres of excellence. In this regard we have decided the time is right to introduce international educationists,” said the school’s founder Mary Okello.
“We are pleased to announce that Scholé Limited will be acquiring all the shares at Makini,”she says in an end of term latter to parents over Easter.
Founded in Nairobi in 1978, Makini operates schools in wealthy areas of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, and in the western Kenyan city Kisumu. It runs junior, middle and upper schools and is owned by indigenous Kenyans.
Scholé has been operating in Africa since 2012, operating schools in Zambia and Uganda.
Advtech is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as Africa’s largest education investor, with 100 schools and colleges in South Africa and Botswana.
In 2017 Advtech announced that it was venturing into the Kenyan market, where it will open an elite school in an upcoming development known as Tatu City.
Nairobi already boasts of well-established international schools including: GEM Cambridge International School; the Aga Khan Academy; Lycée Denis Diderot; Deutsche Schule Nairobi; Nairobi Japanese School; Svenska Skolan Nairobi; and Peponi School, among others.
