ICT Training Center Franchise Looking for Equity Investor

The goal is to set up a state-of-the-art ICT training center in Nairobi, Kenya to offer Academic/Career and professional vendor specific certification programs. The venture is expected to commence as of September 2012 and is expected to be highly profitable and sustainable.

We are currently operating a small ICT training consultancy in Nairobi, Kenya though we have clients in Namibia and Burundi. Our operations have been based on mainly hiring venues for training and training clients onsite, thus, this has locked us out of the exponentially large Walk-In market.

In order to create visibility and to increase our market share, we seek to set up a state of the art training center in Nairobi, Kenya by buying into an ICT Education Franchise tie up with IIHT.

IHT is one of the world's prominent IT education and Infrastructure Management Services Training and Consulting Organization. Its dynamic workforce comprises of expert faculty dedicated to promoting IMS world-wide.

IIHT is a preferred partner of Microsoft, Cisco, HP, Symantec, Oracle, Redhat, Sun Microsystems, Net Apps, CompTIA in India and has cooperated with Sikkim Manipal University which is one of the top Indian universities to offer Degree to its IMS courses.

IIHT has forged a strategic partnership with EDEXCEL UK to provide BTEC HND IT IMS.

IIHT in collaboration with HP has started HP software University recently. IIHT is a knowledge partner of many universities and colleges around the globe.

Our aim is to offer Academic/Career (diploma/degree), vendor/modular and corporate ICT training programmes.

The venture is at a start-up stage, and we require injection of equity capital of USD $150k in exchange for 15% equity stake, which will be reduced to 5% within a span of 5 years. Profits will be shared based on a formula to be agreed upon.

This is a venture that has a total Net ROI of USD $4,500,000 in 5 years, though this is a conservative figure.

There is demand for highly skilled Human Capital in ICT but there aren’t enough centers offering quality up-to-date training. Therefore, this is a highly lucrative venture for would be investors.

There are about 7 direct competitive players in Nairobi. However, they are not able to satisfy the demand, so there is enough of the pie to go around. Listed below is what I believe will be our competitive advantage:

- Run Niche courses locally: The tie up with the franchisor will enable us run a number of niche courses locally thereby reducing the cost to delegates and attracting large numbers. The norm has been that to attend some of these courses delegates are required to fly out of the country, meaning that only company-sponsored delegates are able to attend due to the cost implications.

- Dual Qualifications: By the time graduates complete our degree programs, they will be certified in 21 areas in Infrastructure Management Services (IMS) plus be holders of globally recognized degrees.

The conversion rate from high school to University (both public and private) is 12% and this is due to shortage of places in these institutions. Those constituting the 88% are then absorbed into colleges, technical training institutions and vocational and entrepreneurial institutions. This shows that there is a large target group for the kind of training that we seek to offer through our training center.

Our aim is to bridge this gap by offering Academic/Career (diploma/degree), vendor/modular and corporate ICT training programs that not only prepare graduates for the local market, but also prepare them and give them the skills required in the international market.

Financing will be used to satisfy the following capex: purchase of equipment, furniture and fittings, lab setup costs, franchise registration fees and consumables.