Hassan El Kalla had a vision for Egypt – to expand quality education for the middle class. After years in the healthcare sector, he and a group of like-minded friends established an educational services company, Cairo for Investment and Real Estate Development (CID) that would help turn his dream into reality.

“We are keen on making our schools affordable to middle class families, so tuition ranges between 4,000 to 7,000 Egyptian pounds,” says Mohammed El Kalla, the acting CEO of the company and son of Hassan El Kalla.

Over the years, CID has built many schools in Cairo, including lower cost schools and has provided subsidies to families to make tuition even more affordable. It is also building several schools in Upper Egypt, to improve education in one of the least developed regions in Egypt where literacy rate is just 55 percent, compared to 81 percent in the capital.

While the company has made sound profits in recent years they have ambitious goals of expanding outside Egypt. The company turned to IFC Advisory Services to help them improve their corporate governance practices to attract foreign investment and make the company’s expansion plans sustainable.

“We hope to build a school in every governorate. We are also trying to find partners with added value so that we can expand to other countries like Yemen and Libya,” said Mohammed.

IFC made recommendations for their board to transition from an ageing male-only board to the next generation of leadership. Now, the nine-member board includes two female independent directors and two directors below 40-years.

CID is launching several committees, including audit, human resources, and governance and strategy committees. Their goal is to be more transparent with their shareholders to attract more investors and be more competitive on the stock market. The company will also launch an investor relations department to provide information about the company.

CID already has several private equity firms interested in investing. The company currently serves 13,000 students and employs 2,000 people, but CID’s social entrepreneurial spirit is bigger. The company has plans to not only open nine new schools in the coming two years, but is also planning on opening a university in response to requests from parents.
By having sustainable corporate governance practices at the board and management level, CID will have a chance of attracting even more investment.

IFC’s corporate governance advisory services assist clients to adopt sound corporate governance practices, to help strengthen their operations, improve performance, and provide greater access to financing.

For more information about the Middle East and North Africa corporate governance program, click here.