Edutech start-ups in West Africa struggling to recover from the impact of COVID-19 have been thrown a lifeline in the form of US$10.5 million finance programme.

The initiative, targeting 30 small edupreneurs in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal over three years, has four components, namely providing access to finance to aid SMEs’ recovery and post-pandemic growth; developing skills through technical assistance, to accelerate companies’ digital transformation; creating education opportunities through innovative social-inclusion mechanisms; and providing data through robust impact-management systems and driving an advocacy campaign through sustained dialogue with role players, according to the Education to Employment programme (IP2E).

A partnership between the Mastercard Foundation and IP2E, the project aims to eventually help 95 000 beneficiaries, including students, trainees and ed-tech platform users served by the start-ups. Fifty-five percent of the beneficiaries will be women and 33% disadvantaged youth.

IP2E is a blended finance programme, run by French impact-investment group Investisseurs & Partenaires, aimed at improving access to relevant, quality education.

9 February 2021
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