Nedbank, Brimstone give early childhood development sector R15m boost

Nedbank and investment company Brimstone have invested R15 million in the United States Agency for International Development’s Catalyze EduFinance fund, which will be used to advance early childhood development (ECD) in South Africa and increase access to capital.

Nedbank’s investment was made through its Black Business Partners Legacy Trust, which was established in 2019 and aims to raise R110 million mainly from private sector investors over a period of five years.

Its objective is to support new and existing ECD centres and enable them to offer high-quality education that is typically inaccessible for low income households.

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As many as 500 to 1 000 centres are expected to benefit from the investment, while also receiving financial training.

Nedbank CEO Mike Brown says the investment is meaningful in that it helps enhance the quality of education from a grassroots level.

“Nedbank is fully committed to supporting the education sector and strongly believes that this is a pivotal component of creating a prosperous and thriving South Africa.

“The Department of Basic Education recently announced that two years of ECD will be compulsory for all children before they enter the formal school system in grade one. This fund has come at a critical time and is well positioned to help the school system achieve this goal,” Brown says.

The investment comes at a time when more than half of four- to five-year-old children enrolled in early childhood programmes in South Africa are not able to do tasks expected of children their age, according to research conducted by Thrive by Five22.

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Nedbank says the fund will be managed by education investment firm Kaizenvest, whose experience is in education financing and executing innovative learning programmes around the world

Zanele Mocumi, programme director at Kaizenvest for sub-Saharan Africa, says of the investment: “It addresses literacy at an early age and lays a useful and important foundation for further learning in the formal school system.”

The fund, which is open to investors, is expected to close at the end of next year.

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