BRIDGING THE FINANCE GAP FOR WOMEN SCHOOL LEADERS IN KENYA

Across Kenya, women school leaders play a key role in expanding access to quality education in underserved communities. However, despite rising student enrolment, many women face structural barriers to accessing finance, limiting their ability to invest in classrooms, teachers and infrastructure.

Key insights from Opportunity Edufinance’s School Leadership Academy (SLA) training demonstrate that targeted financial training can significantly increase loan readiness among women. The SLA equips school leaders, particularly those unfamiliar with formal banking, with the confidence and knowledge to engage with financial institutions. It provides interactive workshops to address common misconceptions about borrowing, financial management training and helps connect participants with lenders.

Even with strong plans for growth and development, access to loans is often undermined by cash flow instability. Many schools rely on termly fee payments, yet 44% of women school owners reported that 30-50% of school fees remain unpaid each year.  This debt burden not only hinders school operations but also makes loan repayment difficult and reduces lender confidence.

Women school leaders often encounter gender-specific obstacles when seeking loans. These include lack of collateral such as land, limited formal banking experience and exclusion from traditional credit systems. As a result, many first-time female borrowers struggle to secure funding for basic improvements like classrooms, qualified teachers and school facilities. Without access to credit, fewer children in their communities can benefit from quality education.

Many women running schools in Kenya were navigating complex challenges without having access to formal training or support networks. This included managing daily operations and striving to improve the quality of education provided- all while being excluded from traditional financial institutions.

Opportunity International EduFinance’s School Leadership Academy addresses this disconnect by supporting women to build on their financial literacy, leadership and long-term planning skills to sustainably grow their schools.

The report draws on survey data from 608 school owners across Kenya’s Nyanza, Western and Coast regions, including 289 women. It shows that improved financial literacy enables school leaders to better manage school finances and navigate lending systems, thereby helping women-led schools access essential resources for growth and advancing gender equity in education.

Before receiving training, only 47% of women school leaders intended to apply for a school improvement loan. However, after completing the program, this number rose to 81% demonstrating a nearly twofold increase. Furthermore, after taking part in the program, participants expressed feeling more confident about loan applications, repayment planning and managing perceived risks. This trend was consistent across all school owners surveyed, as 42% of respondents overall planned to apply for loans before the SLA, compared to 80% afterwards. The training provided many women with an introduction to formal lending, with 40% acknowledging that they had never accessed any type of loan before. By the end of the program, over half the women being trained revealed that they intended to take loans to build new classrooms, while others made plans to purchase land. All of which are key steps in expanding school capacity and creating a school environment which can accommodate more pupils.

Bridging the finance gap for women school leaders goes far beyond increasing access to credit. The EduFinance Education Financial Product team responds to these issues by engaging all three key stakeholders: financial institutions, school leaders and parents.

The team works with lenders to create repayment structures which align with school fee collection periods to minimise the risk of missed payments. Then, provides school leaders with financial management training to help them anticipate and plan for periods of low cash flow. The team also connects parents with financial institutions that offer small education loans to allow them to pay school fees on time. This multifaceted approach improves the likelihood of school fees being paid on time, which leads to greater loan security for lenders.

As a result, EduFinance is helping to create more inclusive and sustainable education systems across Kenya.