Article by: Charlotte Smit, Sales & Marketing Executive: Eduloan
Recognising the raw potential that exists in Africa, Eduloan is expanding its offering into the rest of the African continent.
After 18 years of successful business in South Africa, and having helped more than 720,000 South Africans unlock their true potential with more than R3,7 billion in study loans, we are looking forward to bringing this exciting new endeavour to fruition. We aim to become a catalyst for changing lives through education beyond South Africa’s borders.
Eduloan belives this commitment to the rest of the continent will enable us to step up our business to the next level, by broadening our impact on people’s lives through enabling access to education solutions.
A catalyst precipitates an event or change. Every time Eduloan grants a student loan, administrates a bursary or connects its stakeholders, we trigger a series of events that lead to a better life for the student, his or her family and ultimately their entire community.
In 2013 we ran a successful pilot project in Zimbabwe in collaboration with Business Environment Services (BES). BES also has close ties with tertiary learning institutions in Zimbabwe. Eduloan has granted loans to 300 students to the value of R2,8 million in Zimbabwe, and we aim to push this up to R15 million by the end of 2014.
Eduloan has a three-year plan to extend our offering to SADC countries and are currently in discussions with Zambia, Botswana and Nigeria. We are very clear on our strategic intent on doing business in Africa:
- Eduloan is all about social impact and unlocking potential. Therefore one of our key focus areas is to grow into new territories in Africa.
- As a business we are also very aware of the strategic risks that come with concentrating on a single market. Our expansion into Zimbabwe, followed by expansion to other African countries, will help minimise that risk.
- We want to grow the Eduloan brand.
- We want to gather information for future use in new markets.
To further cement our ties with prospective countries, we visit and meet with the various education and finance ministers. Government representatives of Zambia and Botswana will visit Eduloan in South Africa in the foreseeable future, to continue our negotiations.
An important part of Eduloan’s vision is to instil financial discipline in students by giving them the means and support to manage their loans responsibly. We will provide exactly the same educational support in the rest of Africa, by providing educational information and articles on social media, and through seminars and visits to universities, as well as local media interactions.
Image: Charlotte Smit, Sales & Marketing Executive: Eduloan
Article issued by Eduloan