Banking on Education

Uganda

Opportunity Uganda finished 2010 with 66 active school loan clients and 91 schools served over the span of the program.  For 2011 Uganda has plans to grow the number of school loans to 156 and the number of student loans to 9,193. In 2010, Opportunity Uganda also:

• Served 3,840 clients with school fee loans totaling $652,800.  

• Deepened its presence in the urban and peri-urban centers areas of Uganda. 

• Trained 92 participants in workshop throughout 2010 covering topics such as entrepreneurship, business planning, financial management and marketing.  

Ghana

After a slow start to the year Opportunity Ghana finished 2010 strong with 165 school loan clients and 233 schools served over the span of the program.  In the first quarter of 2010, lending in Ghana was put on hold to allow management to rectify an increase in the portfolio at risk (PAR) in the Education Finance portfolio.  Leadership addressed the issue by revising the Credit Policy Guide and Credit Manual. Additionally, Opportunity Ghana:

• Conducted a training seminar in July for 20 loan officers and branch managers on lending and credit risk management for Education Finance and small business loans.

• Increased loan repayment significantly by the end of 2010, a marked improvement in the quality of the Education Finance portfolio. 

• Approved a plan to market Education Finance in twelve of the eighteen bank branches in Ghana, doubling the outreach of the program.

• Projected to reach a total of 258 active school loans with a portfolio of $740,000 by the end of 2011.  

The IDP Rising Schools Program is operating successfully and has disbursed loans to 38 schools, impacting 26,794 students. The team has built a library of detailed training curriculum modules that targets school proprietors, teachers and caterers. During the initial phase of the program, IDP Foundation, Inc. estimates 120 proprietors and caterers will be trained, 1,200 teachers will be trained and 31,080 students will be impacted.  In 2010, the IDP Rising School Program:

• Continued to implement and expand the loan, research, and community development components of the program.

• Customized financial services with capacity-building services to develop proprietors’ abilities to manage and develop their small neighborhood schools.