• Enko Education secures $46 million to fund expansion

• $22 million loan from Standard Bank announced February 17

• Group aims to triple enrollment to 20,000 by 2029

Enko Education, the education arm of investment fund Enko Capital, has closed a $46 million funding round. The round includes a $22 million loan from South African bank Standard Bank, according to a statement released on Tuesday, February 17, 2026.

The loan comes on top of $24 million raised in January 2025 from Africa Capitalworks and Adiwale Partners.

The financing will allow Enko Education, co-founded by Cameroonian financier Cyrille Nkontchou, to accelerate its expansion across Africa by acquiring high-performing schools and supporting their development. The goal is to triple student enrollment to 20,000 students by 2029, while consolidating its education model, which focuses on academic excellence and access to top international universities.

According to the company, founded in 2013, more than 80 percent of its graduates have enrolled in over 600 universities worldwide, including Sciences Po, the University of Toronto, the University of Cape Town and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The group currently operates 16 schools across 10 sub-Saharan African countries: Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest per capita education spending globally. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), most African countries allocate less than 4 percent of their GDP to education, and only a minority reach the recommended threshold of 20 percent of the national budget.

In June 2024, UNICEF reported that nine of 49 African countries – less than one in five – allocated 20 percent or more of their public spending to education, while 24 countries committed to allocating at least 15 percent of their national budget to education and six countries allocated less than 10 percent of their national budget to education. Against this backdrop, the continent still has 42 million out-of-school children of primary school age, according to the Africa’s Pulse report published in October 2024 by the World Bank.

Sandrine Gaingne