The owner of Makini Schools is set to establish a university in Kenya as part of its expansion in the education sector, a move that will see it enter the country’s tertiary learning segment for the first time.
South African multinational ADvTECH, which bought Makini Schools in 2018, also owns Crawford International and the recently acquired Regis Runda Academy that is being rebranded to Makini.
ADvTECH also plans to enter Kenya’s higher education market through its Rosebank University brand, in what will increase competition for existing private institutions like Daystar University, United States International University-Africa and Strathmore University.
“What we laid out there is that we would like to develop in those four countries of operation, premium schools using the Crawford brand, the mid-fee school, which is Flipper, the Gaborone International School, Makini model, and a university,” the multinational’s CEO Geoff Whyte said in reference to the firm’s strategy for Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana and Botswana.
“We will look to expand Rosebank University into those other territories and to take the schools into Ghana, but we want to scale those three brands in the four countries,” he said at a meeting held on August 26, 2025.
ADvTECH plans to charge annual fees ranging between $2,500 (Sh323,000) and $4,000 (Sh516,000) at Rosebank universities established in the foreign markets like Kenya.
The multinational recently opened Rosebank International University College in Accra, Ghana, offering undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
The institution is offering diplomas, undergraduate and doctoral programmes in business administration, digital marketing, hospitality and information technology.
Establishment of a university in Kenya will give ADvTECH a presence across all the education stages starting from junior school.
Demand for private education has grown rapidly over the years, attracting more players targeting households that pay up to millions of shillings in annual fees.
The South African multinational is currently expanding its existing schools in the country: “Construction of the next phase of Crawford International School in Nairobi, Kenya, will commence in the second quarter of 2025.”
The acquisition of Regis Runda Academy marked the latest expansion in Kenya by ADvTECH which first acquired a 71 percent stake in Makini Schools from Mary Okelo at a cost of nearly Sh1 billion in 2018.
The proprietors of Regis Runda Academy –Peter Burugu and Mary Burugu— sold the school to ADvTECH for Sh1.2 billion marking one of the largest deals in Kenya’s private education market. The buyout of Regis raised the number of schools ADvTECH owns in the country to 10, including Crawford International.
