A 50X female application rate increase - A big step towards gender parity for Brighter Investment’s higher ed financing model
From a little over 40 female applicants in 2015 to well over 2000 female applicants in 2020, Brighter Investment has proven that attaining a gender-inclusive model for higher education financing is possible. Women in developing countries are increasingly aware of the importance of a quality education for their careers and many of them are ensuring that nothing stops them from attaining that dream. This is an opportunity Brighter Investment leveraged in 2015 when it supported its first cohort of students, and continues to leverage after six cohorts of growing investors’ wealth by empowering young students to realize their ambitions.
Brighter students selected based on likelihood of academic success, likelihood of career succes and probability of repaying.
Trajectory of Female Enrollment in the Brighter Investment Investment Portfolio
Brighter Investment envisions a future where every academically talented student in the world has access to higher education irrespective of their financial situation, gender, religion and family background. This vision reiterates Brighter Investment’s commitment to inclusion and guides how we go about reaching out to students and onboarding them onto the program.
Over the years, gender became a key aspect of inclusion that Brighter Investment has paid attention to given its decision to cater to STEM programs (data-backed programs that have high earning potential). Currently, the average ratio of male to female enrollment into STEM programs at universities in Ghana stands at 6 males to 1 female. Brighter Investment has made it a point of duty to not only match this ratio, but go beyond it. We are convinced that this is not only the right thing to do, but will also benefit the bottom line.
Since 2015, Brighter Investment has supported 76 out of a total of 3652 applications received from females (with about 3000 of these applications received in the 2019 and 2020 recruitment years). These numbers show the need for higher education financing in Ghana and, by projection, in developing countries around the world. Without sacrificing acceptance standards, Brighter Investment has been able to steadily increase the number of females that become aware of her financing product and the number of females that make it to the top 3% of students selected into each cohort. Through its underwriting algorithm, Brighter Investment selects the best crop of female applicants to support each year all the while increasing the overall quality of the cohort. The key to accomplishing these numbers is to eliminate biases that the female students have faced on their education path to date. E.g. look at an applicant’s underlying intelligence and personality instead of exam grades, as those grades are tainted as an indicator for future success because women have often faced more hurdles to good grades in high school than men.
Key Milestones of BI Female Graduates till date
The first 26 females supported by Brighter Investment have graduated from the university. Our working graduates proved to be a worthwhile investment, also this year despite the general uncertainty in the job market due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many reasons why supporting more females in subsequent years will not only benefit those students and society, but also our investors. Some of these reasons are;
Zero Default Rate: Working female graduates at Brighter Investment have shown a commitment to making repayments on time. So far, there is no working female student that is not making repayments.
High Incomes: One of the highest incomes reported by our working students is from a female graduate. She currently earns the highest and is making repayments as required.
Increased Engagement on the Mentorship Program: The most engaging graduated student on the Brighter Mentorship Program (who has given several presentations to studying students, currently mentors a second-year student at the university and is working with a group of Biochemistry graduates to find a job as quickly as possible) is female.
Lower Rate of Unemployment: Female graduated students at Brighter Investment are finding jobs at a faster rate than their male counterparts. The student with the record of the fastest time to find a job and start repayments is female.
An Innate Hunger for Growth: Most of our female graduates have an attitude of not wanting to settle for less. The graduated student with the highest educational qualification at Brighter Investment is female. Immediately after her first degree, she earned a scholarship to study for a Masters Program at Purdue University and is currently almost rounding up her PhD. We have another female student who is currently working on getting a scholarship to study for a second degree in France.
Jacintha is one of the many female students that applied for financing from Brighter Investment following the project with WUSC and DKM.
Partnership with DKM and WUSC
In 2019, Brighter Investment received a grant from the D.Keith MacDonald Foundation (DKM) and a mandate to double the average female enrollment rate across partner institutions by 2021. This saw Brighter Investment and the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) collaborating to design, plan and implement an awareness creation project that was to result in an increase in the number of females applying to Brighter Investment. Combined with the aforementioned focus on improving our underwriting / student selection algorithm, this invariably resulted in more females getting selected into the 2019, 2020 and 2021 cohorts.
The project was an exciting opportunity for us at Brighter Investment. It afforded us the opportunity of contributing to gender equality (SDG 5) in education in Africa which is an important focus area for us. The project comprised an in-depth evaluation of Brighter Investment’s financing model carried out by a consultant, a nationwide high school tour/mentoring program, research into sexual harassment at Brighter Investment’s partner universities, a COVID-19 adapted awareness creation campaign through printed marketing materials and several online campaigns.
The project went beyond creating awareness about Brighter Investment’s financing model to building strong ties with decision-makers at over one hundred senior high schools across the country. The relationships that were created, we believe, will create a marketing funnel we can keep tapping into long after 2021 is over and we have been able to deliver on our promise to the D. Keith MacDonald Foundation.
A Burgeoning Relationship with Educational Stakeholders in Ghana
Through the ‘Engendering the BI Model’ Project funded by the D. Keith MacDonald (DKM) Foundation and implemented jointly by Brighter Investment and the World University Service of Canada, the relationship between Brighter Investment, Ghana’s Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service was renewed and strengthened. Particularly, relationships with the Science and Technology Directorate of the Ministry as well as the Division for Basic and Secondary Education were fostered.
Through these relationships, Brighter Investment will continue to have access to senior high schools in the country where a larger share of Brighter Investment’s market can be found.
How Brighter Investment is Driving Gender Inclusion in its Model
Gender inclusion is an integral part of Brighter Investment’s operations. From finding new students to bringing them onto the program and working with them throughout the program, Brighter Investment is committed to ensuring inclusiveness. Some of the ways through which Brighter Investment is driving a gender-inclusive model are as follows;
Marketing: Through our marketing initiatives and activities, Brighter Investment was able to reinforce its belief in gender equality and take action to inculcate gender inclusion in its model. Gender inclusion was reiterated through online advertisements targeted at females, the strengthening of Brighter Investment’s relationship with administrators in virtually every female-only high school in Ghana, the hosting of information sessions with students to allay fears regarding taking on Brighter Investment’s financing (as girls are considered more risk-averse) as well as fears towards pursuing a higher education program in a STEM field (as girls are often discouraged from taking on these education programs), and finally the strengthening of gender-inclusive language in communicating with students.
Student Recruitment: To foster gender inclusion in the Brighter Investment financing model for higher education, a nationwide tracer study was carried out in 2020 through the help of the Association of African Universities (AAU), Ghana’s Ministry for Business Development (now integrated into the Ministry of Trade and Industry) and Ghana’s National Service Secretariat (NSS). The objective of this tracer study was to explore top careers in Ghana and their corresponding entry-level salaries. Data obtained from this survey saw Brighter Investment expanding its number of supported programs to include programs with high earning potential that female high school students were more likely to choose to pursue after high school. With this expansion, the number of supported female students will significantly increase in 2021.
Mentorship: The mentorship program is also another route through which Brighter Investment attempts to reiterate its commitment to gender equality in its operations. The last two years have witnessed a significant increase in the number of female mentors (engineers, scientists, tech gurus and business leaders) recruited into the mentorship program. These female industry professionals have been paired with most of the female students on the program to serve as role models.
Strategic Partnerships: In January 2021, Brighter Investment commenced a project to foster strategic partnerships with key stakeholders in the development and employment landscapes in Ghana. These strategic alliances are to help Brighter Investment harvest more opportunities for the growth and success of students and especially for the professional development of female students.
Unbiased underwriting: Brighter Investment’s business model is based on a data driven algorithm that is used to decide who receives financing. Instead of a backward looking credit score, we employ a forward looking career potential and likelihood of repaying score to make these decisions. Ensuring that this algorithm is not only unbiased, but also actively corrects for previous biases faced by women on their career paths before Brighter Investment, improves both female enrollment as well as financial performance of the student portfolio.
Lessons learned in Ghana will help keep the program equitable from the start of operations at educators in other countries (educators like Makerere university in Uganda here depicted).
BI’s Planned Expansion beyond Ghana
In 2020, Brighter Investment secured a partnership with Opportunity International. This partnership was fostered to facilitate Brighter Investment’s expansion to Uganda. Although delayed due to Covid-19, plans remain in place to secure this expansion as soon as the situation allows. The lessons learned in Ghana described above will continue to help Brighter Investmen to diversify its student portfolio beyond Ghana.
Conclusion
Brighter Investment is driving a gender-inclusive model for impact investing in the higher education of high potential students in developing countries. Through its model, Brighter Investment is offering investors the opportunity to earn attractive financial returns while doing good - the hallmark of impact investing. With help from DKM and WUSC this program is on a path to become gender neutral and further strengthen it’s mission to contribute to a prosperous and equitable world.