Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ST - James Nursery and Primary School Business Plan
ST - James Nursery and Primary School Business Plan
JUNE 2009
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.1 Strengths 1
1.2 Weaknesses 1
1.3 Opportunities 1
1.4 Threats 1
7.1 Demand 22
7.2 Supply 23
7.3 Competition and Comparative Advantages 24
7.4 Fees 25
7.5 Marketing Strategy 25
8.1 Curriculum 26
8.2 Regulations 27
8.3 Admissions and Classes 28
8.4 Management and Staffing 28
8.5 Location and Infrastructure 33
8.6 Buildings and Other Infrastructure 33
8.7 Sports Facilities 34
8.8 Equipment, Furniture, Fixtures 34
8.9 Vehicles 34
12.1 Profitability 41
12.2 Company Financial Condition 42
12.3 Sensitivity Analysis 42
4. School Manpower 30
9. Sensitivity Analysis 42
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LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF ANNEXES
Management and
Technical Assistance: The principal project promoter – Serunkuma
Robert is a keen and experienced business
entrepreneur who spearheads a highly-
motivated team of project promoters that
manages the school.
Estimated
Project Cost: US$ 492,094 comprising of:
US$ Shs. %
Million
Current Status: The school has been operating since 1999 from the
start-up building infrastructure and educational
facilities improvised by its first 10 founders.
Currently, the school has 200 boarding and day
students. The current site offers adequate space [0.9
ha.] for expansion and re-development of the school
as proposed in this plan. Financing for this school
expansion phase is required by September 2009.
Project Proposal/BusinessiiiPlan Corporate Document
5 Good Reasons on Why St. James Nursery and Primary
Day/Boarding School Seeks a US$ 300,000 Project Financing Fillip to
Support its Re-development and Expansion Programme
1. To hire and retain quality teachers who are equipped with the requisite
classroom instructional skills and mentoring know-how necessary for
the moulding and shaping of young mind into the exemplary students
and successful people of tomorrow.
1.1 Strengths
1.2 Weakness
1.3 Opportunities
1.4 Threats
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Project Proposal/Business Plan Corporate Document
University Uganda
Teacher
Poly
Training Technic
Technical Specialist Vocational Technical
NTCs (Degrees) (Diploma) & Business Training Training Institutes
Colleges Colleges Centres
PTCs (Diploma)
(Diploma) (Certificate) +
Upper Secondary (Certificate) (Certificate)
(UACE)
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iii. The instill the value of living and working co-operatively with
other people and caring for others in the community;
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Our Commitment
In the light of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of God's
word, we will educate each unique student in cooperation with the
Christian community so that he or she is equipped and inspired to
make a difference for Jesus Christ in the world.
St. James Nursery and Primary School has developed the following
core values to provide a firm foundation for our school.
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Our Calling
THE VALUE OF A
ST. JAMES NURSERY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION
VIEW
1) History and the world around them as part of God’s creation and plan.
2) Education as a life-long endeavour with a commitment to excellence.
3) Themselves as active and responsible citizens of a diverse nation and world.
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ACHIEVE
1) Proficiency in using information and technology responsibly.
2) An appreciation for the fine arts.
LEARN
1) The characteristics of a healthy lifestyle and habits.
2) Problem-solving and decision-making skills.
3) To match their gifts with educational and career options.
UNDERSTAND
1) The worth of all humanity as created in the image of God.
2) The difference between a Christian and secular worldview.
3) Written and oral communication with discernment.
EXPRESS
1) Their ideas clearly, creatively and effectively through oral, written
and artistic means.
2) Their belief in Jesus as their personal Saviour and their gratitude to
God through a life of service.
God
There is one God and He is sovereign and eternal. He is revealed in
the Bible as three equal divine Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God depends on nothing and no one; everything and everyone
depends on Him. God is holy, just, wise, loving and good.
God created all things of His own sovereign will, and by His Word they
are sustained and controlled.
God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is also Father of
all whom He has adopted as His children. Because of God’s faithfulness
and His fatherly concern, nothing can separate His children from His
love and care.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternally existing, only begotten Son of
the Father. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He was
conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, truly God and truly
man. He lived a sinless life and died in our place. He was buried, rose
from the dead in bodily form and ascended to heaven. Jesus is King of
the universe and Head of the Church, His people whom He has
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The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. He convicts
people of their sin, leads them to repentance, creates faith within them
and regenerates them. He is the source of their new sanctified life
bringing forth His fruit in the life of believers. He gifts believers
according to His sovereign will, enabling them to serve the Lord.
God’s world
Adam and Eve, the parents of all humankind were created in the
image of God to worship their Creator by loving and serving Him, and
by exercising dominion under God’s rule by inhabiting, possessing,
ruling, caring for and enjoying God’s creation. Consequently the
purpose of human existence is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
All people have sinned and, if outside of Christ, are in a fallen, sinful,
lost condition, helpless to save themselves, under God’s condemnation
and blind to life’s true meaning and purpose.
God holds each person responsible and accountable for choices made
and actions pursued. Human responsibility and accountability do not
limit God’s sovereignty. God’s sovereignty does not diminish human
responsibility and accountability.
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Keeping in view the significant and emerging role of the private sector
in the promotion of education at various levels, the Government has
also introduced the concept of Public-Private Partnership. The
suggested incentives to private sector educational institutions are:
Government
Schools 74.8%
Private
Schools 25.2%
This study describes the efforts by St. James Nursery and Primary
School to upgrade its primary schooling infrastructure and other
educational facilities so as to offer a vintage quality primary school
education that is competitive and cost-effective to its target market
population. The school project as proposed is meant to beget a two-
way advantage in this respect, but with the biggest beneficiary being
the student community at St. James Nursery and Primary School
that is situated at Kamwema in Mpala Village, Kitala Parish,
Katabi Sub-County, Busiro County of Wakiso District that is
located in Central Uganda on the northern shores of Lake Victoria.
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The school’s founder – Paul Kiyimba [RIP] started out with a vision
of gradual and phased development of the nursery/primary school to
secondary level by taking up existing educational market opportunities
to grow and expand it eventually into a high quality facility offering
comprehensive primary-secondary education to the surrounding area’s
resident population. However, in spite of the existing numerous
opportunities for growth and expansion of a nucleus primary school to
a secondary school with the requisite standards, the current
management of the school is not well positioned to take them as they
have to grapple with a wide range of challenges and obstacles in the
form of limited available surplus funds from fees revenues that can be
dedicated to capital development financing to the school’s physical
development and expansion programme. At the same time, being a
private-founded school, the Government of Uganda [GoU] does not
have any contingency funding measures in place to support struggling
private schools that a private-school like St. James Nursery and
Primary School can resource to realize and implement its visions and
development blueprints. It is also practically difficult to borrow funds
from the Uganda commercial financing sector for the stated purpose
owing to the prevailing high interest rates levied by such banks and a
dearth of development financing credit facilities for the Primary
Education sector since much of it tends to find its way to the more
lucrative Secondary Education sector or urban-based primary schools.
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Other salient features that work in favour of the future success and
growth of St. James Nursery and Primary School are:
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means that such a population can easily afford the cost of a good
quality primary school education for its children given the
opportunity. In any case, taking into consideration the facilities
that St. James Nursery and Primary School will offer, the
fees set will be similar to those of identical competitive primary
schools elsewhere in Uganda.
The total capital development budget for the proposed St. James
Nursery and Primary School expansion programme is US$
352,094 of which US$ 52,094 [14.80%] is the project promoter’s
equity commitment and US$ 300,000 [85.20%] is to be raised from
donor sources.
The project seems to be viable with 39% internal rate of return and a
pay back period of 3.89 years. The net present value [after tax] of
the project is US$ 52,981.69. Discount rate used for NPV is 28%.
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For the purpose of this proposal, strength of 560 students has been
proposed. The distribution is 70 pupils per class [Primary 1 to Primary
7] with each class having two streams of 35 students each.
Students/Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Year
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Nursery 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70
P1 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70
P2 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70
P3 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70
P4 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70
P5 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70
P6 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70
P7 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70
Total
Students 560 560 560 560 560 560 560 560 560 560
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The legal entity that owns and runs St. James Nursery and Primary
School is St. James Nursery and Primary School Limited. This
company was incorporated in the Republic of Uganda way back in
February 1999 and has the following ownership structure:
The first teaching staff of the school at the time it started out in 1999
were only ten [10] dedicated teachers who devoted themselves to
building the academic reputation of the school from scratch up to the
present. Some of them have however since passed on. Below is a list
of these first ten [10] school-founding teachers:-
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The school started out with 24 pupils at the time it opened its doors in
1999. This enrolment figure has eventually evolved to grow to the
present 200 students [as of 2009]. The school’s enrolment evolution
over the years is depicted in Table 2 below.
Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
No. of
Students 24 70 80 140 165 190 215 240 190 195 200
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the support of eight [8] pupils which it has since grown to a current
number of about thirty-five [35] school dependents. The affected
pupils are mostly those who are in dire need of educational and
material support as a result of either being from marginally-poor
families of having lost one or both of their parents to the AIDS/HIV
pandemic that swept through Uganda for much of the 1980s and
1990s.
The prevailing situation at our school is that the lower primary level is
the most disadvantaged section in terms of having the highest
numbers of orphans/needy children as compared to the upper primary
section.
Although some desperately poor parents only pay partial tuition fees,
the bulk of the school’s recurrent and development budget is mostly
met from the contributions in form of donations/grants and a variety
of support funds/facilities by friends, well-wishers, philanthropic
agencies and a whole range of children welfare and development social
support groups in Uganda. We therefore try as much as possible to
outsource of school-support resources and facilities from a diverse
patchwork of well-intentioned benefactors and educational
development actors alike. The late Paul Kiyimba [the original school
founder] was one of the key sponsors of the school whose
contributions and support have been memorialized.
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However, there is a glaring gap between rural and urban areas in adult
literacy with northern Uganda lagging behind at 45% and the highest
in the central region at 78%.
The report projects that by 2015, at least 75% of adults in Uganda will
be literate.
More males were found to be literate (76 percent) than females (63
percent). The literacy rates in 2002/03 and 2005/06 have remained
more or less the same, regardless of sex (see Table 3).
Residence
Urban 92 82 86 90 84 87 89 83 86
Rural 72 54 62 74 60 67 74 58 66
Region
Central
Excluding 81 74 77 82 74 79 82 78 80
Eastern 72 62 62 72 54 63 71 56 64
Northern 64 33 47 72 42 56 74 45 59
Western 74 61 67 79 69 74 74 60 67
Kampala _ _ _ 94 91 92 92 90 91
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In Uganda, there are 12,280 primary schools 74.8 % of, which are
government owned and funded. Most of the primary schools - 97.7 %
are co-educational schools, 0.4% are for boys only, 0.5% are for girls
only and 1.4% is unknown (MoES 2001). The available data shows
that day schools account for 92.8 %, full boarding schools 0.6%,
partly boarding (with both day and boarding pupils) schools 5%, and
unknown 1.6% (Ibid, 2001).
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Besides the above, there are some other subjective, social and status
considerations which also play an important role in making decision.
7.1 Demand
The existing high quality private schools are filled to capacity and the
administrators of these schools confirm that they receive more
applications that they can accommodate.
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Of the 7.41 million pupils last year, there were 3.71 million boys and
3.69 girls, reflecting a 49.9% of girls' enrollment.
Of the 7.41 million pupils enrolled in primary school last year, about
5% are in private schools. As the quality of Government-aided primary
schools continues to decline and the number of students grows,
demand for private schools is expected to rise, especially among the
middle and upper income families that can afford an alternative to the
government aided primary schools. Administrators of the main private
schools in Kampala for instance state that demand for their services is
growing as indicated by the increase in student enrolment in these
schools during recent years. To accommodate the growing demand,
more private schools are required.
7.2 Supply
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7.4 Fees
Fees for the school have been set taking into consideration the
facilities being provided and the expected quality of education. No
increase of fees is assumed in the financial projections. St. James
Nursery and Primary School will quote fees in Uganda Shillings. The
Uganda Shilling has been relatively stable against major international
currencies like the British Pound and the US Dollar and is expected to
remain so. The facilities being provided by St. James Nursery and
Primary School will be much superior to those available at the other
schools operating in Wakiso District. Hence the quoted fees [for
boarders] of UShs. 450,000/Head/Term [US Dollars
210/Head/Term] will be very competitive. Furthermore, there will be
room for upward adjustment should this be deemed necessary.
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8.1 Curriculum
St. James Nursery and Primary School will offer syllabi of the
comprehensive primary curricula leading to the Primary Leaving
Examinations Certificate. The Primary School curriculum is set by
the Ministry of Education and Sports [more specifically, the UNCDC –
the Uganda National Curriculum Development Centre]. The
comprehensive primary school curriculum will be used because of its
objectives, which are:
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8.2 Regulations
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All the teachers are locally recruited. Good qualified and experienced
teachers are available. The remuneration offered is good enough to
attract quality teachers. At full operation there will be a total of 20
teaching staff. The complete staffing requirements for both academic
and non-academic staff are shown in Table 4 and the Organization
Chart in Figure 3 below.
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Figure 3: St. James Nursery and Primary School Organization Chart
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Location and Infrastructure
The school is located on a 0.9 ha. [2.25 Acres] site in Mpala Village, Kitala
Parish, Katabi Sub-County. The school is situated on the Mpala-Bubuli
road off the Kampala–Entebbe main road at Mpala near Seventh Day
[SDA] Church. The school is exactly located on the village road to Bubuli –
and a few metres from Mpala Trading Centre towards Kampala and opposite
the road to Lyamutundwe village.
The plot on which the school sits is registered as a District Lease in the
names of St. James Nursery and Primary School Boarding Primary
School. The land title is unencumbered and is available as collateral. The
size and topography of the site are suitable for the project. The site is
spacious enough to accommodate the new structures and building
extensions that are being proposed in this plan.
The area has adequate water supply, but being a rural location in Uganda it
lacks an electricity grid network. A solar power unit will be set up at the
school to provide regular electricity supply and an electricity generator set
will be purchased and used as a standby power supply source. Sewage
treatment will be to a septic tank.
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The construction of all buildings will be the same, comprising of reinforced
concrete frames with concrete block work walling rendered and plastered.
Roofing will be of corrugated iron sheets on wooden trusses. Windows will be
of plain louvers in timber sub-frames fitted with burglar proofing. Doors will
be of paneled timber shutters.
8.8 Vehicles
St. James Nursery and Primary School requires an 8 MT Fuso Truck for
the day to day transport needs of the school and other general purposes.
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9.0 PROJECT TIMETABLE
The school currently operates from within the precincts of its own plot of
land [0.9 ha.] which it deems adequate for the planned expansion
programme to its existing infrastructure and facilities. This land is large
enough to accommodate the additional structures as planned and
comfortably cater for 560 students as planned.
Activity Timing
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Figure 4: Project Implementation Plan
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10.0 ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
Land Clearing
Since the school is actively using the site, it had to be cleared and levelled at
first. The bushes covering the site were cleared prior to construction of the
exiting buildings. Lawn grasses have been planted in the school compound
and various tree species have also been planted.
The school presently draws its water supply from dams located about 4 kms
away from the school. A borehole to provide water during emergency will be
set up. Arrangements have also been made to harvest rain water from the
roofs of the buildings and store it in an underground tank, which is yet to be
constructed at the site. For sewage treatment, septic tanks [VIP Stance
latrines] will be constructed. These facilities will be adequate for the school.
Garbage Disposal
The current supply of water to the development is not all that satisfactory.
To solve this perennial problem, a water reservoir will be installed. A Solar
Power Unit will also be installed to supply constant electric power to the
school. A standby diesel generator of 40 kVA will also be installed for
emergency.
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Fire Protection
The management of the school is well aware of the need for international
standards of health and safety. The Entebbe Regional Referral Hospital
is only just about 6 kms away as well as several local clinics at the nearby
trading centre of Abayita-ababiri and Entebbe municipality. The school will
identify a resident doctor who will always be on hand to provide emergency
services when required.
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11.0 PROJECT COST AND FINANCIAL PLAN
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The project promoter has already contributed US$ 192,094 in the form of
existing assets such as land, land development, existing school structures,
some equipment, furniture and various pre-operational costs. A long-term
loan of US$ 300,000 [UShs. 645 million] is sought from the donor
institutions. The project promoter has undertaken to provide some additional
cash to cover possible cost overruns or other charges.
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12.0 PROFITABILITY AND FINANCIAL CONDITION
Financial projections for St. James Nursery and Primary School have
been prepared and are summarized in Table 8 below. [Details of the
financial projections and assumptions made are shown in Annexes 1-7].
Current
Ratio [:1] 31.12 41.11 3.79 4.20 5.98 6.55 7.54 8.61 9.65
Net LT
debt/equit 1.15 1.04 0.91 0.63 0.42 0.27 0.16 0.069 0
y ratio
[:1]
LT debt
service
coverage 3.3 3.68 1.5 1.71 2.26 2.53 2.81 3.10 3.41
ratio [:1]
12.1 Profitability
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Expected Rate of Return on Total Project Investment. The expected
internal rate of return [IRR] after tax, on total project investment is
approximately 39% per year.
The assumptions on which the financial projections are based reflect current
conditions. A sensitivity analysis of the project has, however, been carried
out to examine the impact of possible changes in critical variables on the
company’s performance. A summary of the sensitivity analysis is shown in
Table 9 below and the full details are presented in Annex 7H.
DSCR
Change IRR ROE 2010 2011 2012 2013
Sensitivity Case
Base case 39% 23% 3.30 3.68 1.5 1.71
Operating Costs +10% 36% 17% 2.62 2.94 1.2 1.38
Fees/revenues -10% 24% 14% 2.29 2.58 1.06 1.21
Enrollment build-up -5% 31% 19% 2.76 3.09 1.26 1.44
The sensitivity analysis shows that the project is most sensitive to changes
in school fees, enrollment and costs. Enrollment will be achieved since the
school already has 200 students. Under most conditions the project will
remain viable, meet its financial commitments and continue to provide an
acceptable return to the investors.
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13.0 DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL IMPACT CONSIDERATIONS
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14.0 SPECIAL FEATURES, RISKS AND ISSUES
Low Risk
The project has a relatively low risk of failure because of the strong demand
for private education facilities in Uganda and the educational and business
strengths of the sponsors. With increasing population and the subsequent
overcrowding at government-aided schools, demand for private schools is
expected to grow substantially in the coming years. With the facilities being
provided at St. James Nursery and Primary School and this being an
existing school, maintaining full enrollment should not be a problem.
Financing
Management
The good set-up of the school has depended on the experience of the
principal promoter Mr. Robert Serunkuma in education and business
management
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15.0 KEY ASSUMPTIONS
Interest Rate on
Long Term Loan 10%
Project Financing
Equity 39.04%
Debt 60.96%
Long Term Loan Repayment [Yrs] 9
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15.3 Miscellaneous Assumptions
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