Actus Education Holdings acquires Kenyan group

Published 23/04/2019

Sweden’s Actus Education Holdings, reputed to be one of the largest education companies in the country, has ventured into the Kenyan education market to buy a stake in local schools company Riara Group of Schools. The acquisition is part of a larger scheme to expand into the larger East African market.

The local owners of the schools, the Gachukia family, disclosed that they will retain management roles within the school’s system.

“By partnering with Actus, we have the opportunity to take our vision further”

A press statement issued to announce the deal said the Group’s founding chairman and executive director Daniel Gachukia, and his wife Eddah, the academic director of the group, will continue overseeing operations on the ground.

“By partnering with Actus, we have the opportunity to take our vision further and to expand our quest for the highest standards of education for Kenya,”Daniel Gachukia said.

Gachukia said the plan will be to expand the school group into other parts of East Africa, including Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, taking advantage of a growing middle class and increasing number of expatriates seeking quality international- curriculum based education.

Part of the money earned from the deal will go into refurbishing the schools, curriculum enhancement and improving teaching through increased use of IT.

“The refurbishment of the existing schools will include a makeover of the existing campuses. We will also invest heavily in curriculum enhancement leveraging on IT, state-of-the-art teaching methodology, robotics, cultural activities and co-curricular resources,” he added.

The entry of Actus into local market through the partnership with Riara will help to achieve a shared vision of attaining the highest education standards in Kenya and the region, said Daniel Anderson of Actus.

The 40-year-old Kenyan group consists of six schools including two kindergartens, two primary schools, a girl’s high school and an international school.

It is considered to run upper middle-class institutions, charging fees of between US$4,000-6,000 a year depending on the level of education.

The number of medium to high-cost private schools offering international education has been growing in Kenya now standing at 32 with the latest being locally owned Edinburg schools, Sabis Runda by Dubai group Sabis Education, and Crawford School by South Africa’s ADvTech group.

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