Banking ON Education Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire June 2018
Abidjan’s 2,400 private schools represent almost half of all schools in the city and serve 54% of the city’s school children. Approximately This paper is based 70% of private schools operate profitably while providing critical on CapPlus’ field access to education. New schools have opened at a rate of 7% per research funded year for the past 20 years. by UBS Optimus Foundation (www.ubs.com/optimus). The schools represent a $200 million market potential for financial Data collection occurred institutions to extend credit. They also handle $153 million in cash in March 2018, directed by transactions that could be captured. Dr. Joanna Härmä with the These are just some of the findings from CapitalPlus Exchange's market assistance of NOI Polls; Peter research into low-fee private schools in Abidjan. CapPlus' data comes Hinton analyzed market from in-person surveys of 150 school proprietors operating in low- potential. The researchers income districts, and provides the basis for projections of market size walked through the low- and demand for finance for the entire private school sector. income districts of Abobo, Yopougon, and Port-Bouët FINDING 1: Low-fee private schools are large, well and identified 418 schools, established, and registered of which 344—or 82%—were private. A random sample The in-depth interviews with low-fee private school proprietors was selected for interviews, revealed that 65% have been in business for ten years or more. Eighty- but some schools were five percent of the schools operate as private businesses, 47% own the unavailable. As a result, premises they occupy, and 27% of proprietors operate between two secondary schools are and five schools. Women own 18% of the sample schools, in contrast under-represented in the to other cities studied, in which women owned between 38% and 52% final sample (16% in the of surveyed schools. sample versus 28% in the list of 344 found schools). Average enrollment in our sample is 336 students, significantly higher This study complements than seen in the other cities we have surveyed. Even that large similar research CapPlus number belies the significant size of a few schools in the sample, three conducted in 2016 and 2017 of which had more than 2000 students. Sixty-one percent of sample in Abuja, Nigeria; Accra, schools and 73% of all identified schools provide multiple levels of Ghana; Dar es Salaam, education, such as pre-primary and primary. Tanzania; Kampala, Uganda; Lusaka, Zambia; and Nairobi, Private pre-primary education is much rarer in Abidjan than in other Kenya. CapPlus thanks our cities studied: only 5% of the private school student population is pre- partner, IDP Foundation, for primary, although 10% of private primary students are underage. In seconding Desiree Acholla contrast, 51% of private school enrollments are in secondary schools, to the onsite team. much higher than CapPlus has seen elsewhere. Overall, 70% of secondary school children in Abidjan attend private schools. ABIDJAN'S PRIVATE SCHOOLS COMPARED WITH OTHER MARKETS
Average enrollment 0% % of students in pre-primary % of students in secondary surveyed schools 70% all private schools all private schools 60% 50% 0% 336 30%
220 20% 1 2 173 10% 123 0 Abuja Abuja Accra Abuja Accra ar es ar es Accra ar es usa a usa a usa a Salaam Salaam Abidjan Abidjan Salaam Abidjan ampala ampala ampala
Seventy-six percent of schools in our sample are registered with the Ministry of Education (the Ministere de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Technique et de la Formation Professionnelle) and another 10% are in the process of becoming registered. The registration requirements enable new schools to open and then apply for a provisional license that allows them to operate for five years while fulfilling the criteria for full registration. Almost all schools—registered and unregistered— reported having been visited by a regional government official in the previous year.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SURVEYED SCHOOLS IN ABIDJAN
Average wn land ualified omen Students enrollment teachers proprietors per toilet
1 % 33 4 % 23%
School age ar et brea down Socio-economic ar et share status of students all private schools 5 yrs 16% 6 % %
31% 5- yrs 10 yrs 26% 5 % 1 % 65% 25% 5% 5% 10% 2% only only oor oor upper ower- middle rimary oorest primary iddle secondary secondary re-primary re-primary - re-primary - re-primary