HOBEC is an existing private bilingual (English and French languages) school located in Douala, created in 1990. The school started operations on rented premises in 1991 with 2 nursery classes and one primary class. Its curriculum, which is based on the national curriculum, is designed to offer students from nursery to secondary school, modern and practical approaches to education.
The project is in its second phase and involves expansion through construction and operation of nursery, primary and secondary schools for a total capacity of approximately 2,300 students, together with common areas, sporting facilities and bus and refectory service.
The project will help consolidate HOBEC’s leading position in the private education sector, implement a MIS system, correct its unbalanced financial structure, improve financial results, broaden the curriculae and enable further development.

By participating in the project, IFC would provide long-term resources, which are in short supply locally and are critical for the completion of the project.
IFC is one of the very few institutions financing private education investments. By supporting this project IFC is expected to encourage increased private investments in the sector. A successful investment would demonstrate to more conservative financial institutions that investments in schools could be profitable. IFC and sponsor will share their experiences in this project so that others may learn from it.

The development impact resulting from the project are as follows:
Provide more education choices: The project will contribute to providing quality bilingual education in Douala area, where similar quality education is scarce, and often, the only other option is deficient public education.

Complement the efforts of the Government of Cameroon (GoC): By offering about 2,300 student slots, the project will free needed capacity in the public school system and make room for pupils from lower-income groups. The GoC is experiencing budgetary restrictions aimed at restoring macroeconomic equilibrium and maintaining adequate debt service. The additional resources mobilized for this project will substitute for public subsidies to private and missionary education (HOBEC has never benefited from such subsidies), that the Government could no longer afford. Although currently at US$173 million for 1999/2000, recurrent government’s budget allocation for education dropped from US$124 million in 1992/1993 to US$76 million in 1994/1995. And for the past decade the government has not been able to balance its budget. The project will enhance Cameroon’s stock of human capital by graduating a higher percentage of students expected to enroll in various universities and colleges in Cameroon and abroad.

Create additional jobs: The project will create 40 new jobs, of which 29 are teaching positions.

Socio-political impact: HOBEC will graduate students that are truly bilingual and sharing a common culture, thus further cementing national unity.

Raise the standards: HOBEC''s valuable competition to both public and private schools, should contribute to raising of standards throughout the system.

Enhance bottom-line discipline and managerial efficiency: working with IFC has led HOBEC to conduct careful market studies, develop business plans and agree to accepted audits of their finances. These tasks, supported through the technical expertise that IFC will offer, will be of critical benefit to this company not accustomed to working in internationally accepted standards.

Encourage commercial lending to private education: Finally, if successful, the project will serve as a model and encourage the development of a pool of quality and well-structured loan funded educational institutions.