A Leading Funder in Africa Boosts Its Support for the Next Generation

A view of Kigali, Rwanda. Photo: Stephanie Braconnier/shutterstock

As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc around the globe, the Mastercard Foundation has stepped up in a big way to support its region of focus, committing $1.3 billion to Africa’s pandemic response. But it has also elevated its everyday program investments, as evidenced by a recent boost in its support for Africa’s next generation of leaders.

The foundation’s investment in African youth is significant. The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program is working to support the education and growth of more than 40,000 young Africans during the next two decades, regardless of their financial circumstances. A new 10-year, $55 million partnership with the University of Rwanda brings the foundation’s total Scholars Program commitment to $1.3 billion, a figure that mirrors the foundation’s COVID response to date.

The partnership is expected to build a pipeline to higher education for 1,200 young people, with a particular focus on refugee and displaced youth, youth with disabilities, and women seeking degrees in STEM disciplines like math and science.

Here are four things to know about where this program fits within the foundation’s overall strategy, how this newest partnership with the University of Rwanda works, and what levers the foundation’s pulling to help students with leadership potential attain social and financial stability for themselves, their families and their communities.

1. Where it fits

To avoid any confusion with the financial services corporation, the Mastercard Foundation was created as a separate entity in 2006 by Mastercard International on the day of its initial public offering. Independently governed, it claims combined commitments of more than $5.7 billion on assets of approximately $40 billion, making it one of the largest funders in the world. 

The foundation has focused its funding on Africa for more than a decade, with the overarching goal of giving “all people an equal chance to succeed.” 

The Mastercard Foundation identified employment as a key pathway out of poverty, and became engaged in helping the more than 80% of the African population that works informally to transition to formal work. At the same time, it funds access points to financial inclusion that help small businesses expand their own growth and create job opportunities for others. 

Scholarships fit within the foundation’s signature Young Africa Works program, which aims to help the 375 million young people that are expected to enter Africa’s workforce by 2030. According to some estimates, that number may ultimately total more than 1 billion people, making it the largest and fastest-growing workforce in the world. 

2. Supporting aptitude and academics

An integral part of that work is the foundation’s Scholars Program, which offers young Africans with aptitude and academic chops the chance to become transformative leaders. Inside Philanthropy has followed the program since the start. It provides a whole host of essentials—financial, social and academic support extends beyond tuition and can include books, laptops, transportation, accommodations, counseling, skills training, internships, mentorships and career services. 

The program accepts bachelor’s degree candidates through age 29 at the time of application, and graduate degree candidates up to age 35. Students must also meet the eligibility criteria of partner institutions, which implement programs individually.

All of the demographics receiving a special leg up in the Rwanda University partnership have been a focus for the foundation since the Young Africa Works strategy launched in 2018, across all of its programs. For example, the foundation reports that 73% of the 40,000 scholarships it has already awarded have gone to girls and young women. 

3. Transforming Rwanda

Rwanda was the first country the Mastercard Foundation zeroed in on, and is home to several other Scholars Program higher education partners, including Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU-Africa), African Leadership University (with campuses in Rwanda and Mauritius), and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS).

The University of Rwanda will now join the list of schools partnering with the Mastercard Foundation in the country. A public research university established in 2013, the University of Rwanda characterizes itself as “the largest and most comprehensive higher education institution” in the country, with the specific mission of producing “transformative and highly enterprising leaders.”

Its $55 million partnership with the Mastercard Foundation will fund 1,200 scholarships over 10 years, with an emphasis on refugee and displaced candidates, youth with disabilities, and women majoring in STEM.

University of Rwanda’s Vice Chancellor Alexandre Lyambabaje said that the program aligns with both its institutional goals to train transformative leaders, as well as national goals, which center on three pillars: economic transformation, social transformation and transformational government. “This program aligns with the Rwanda National Transformation Strategy and its impact will resonate at the University of Rwanda, among our stakeholders, and through the larger East African community,” Lyambabaje said.

4. Global options

The Mastercard Foundation has a geographically diverse mix of partners, and students have a wide range of institutions from which to choose—particularly at the master’s degree level. The University of Rwanda is joining a global network of 29 partners located across Africa, Europe, Canada, the U.S. and Latin America.

Partners for undergraduate studies span Africa, including Ashesi University in Ghana, the University of Gondar in Ethiopia, the University of Pretoria in South Africa and Makerere University in Uganda, which entered a partnership to provide 1,000 scholarships to academically talented youth between 2013 and 2023.

Global options include Wellesley College in the U.S. and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, which received a seven-year, total $27 million commitment from the foundation to fund 80 undergrads and 20 postgrads in 2016.

Other post-grad partners include Canada’s McGill University, Sciences Po (the international research university based in France) and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. 

As the Scholars Program seeks to realize sustainable progress, systems change is also an ultimate goal. Phil Cotton, the foundation’s director of human capital development, said that the work to bring about socio-economic transformation “aims not just to support young Africans, but to strengthen the education systems and institutions that exist to serve them.” 

It’s also opening doors that were once closed. “We are increasingly collaborating with African higher education institutions to deliver and scale high-quality learning that is relevant, accessible and inclusive,” Cotton said.