Egypt’s biggest investment bank EFG Hermes announced Sunday that it is willing to investment $300 million in basic education in Egypt in cooperation with UAE GEMS Education in the upcoming five years. Upon the partnership, EFG Hermes will establish an investment fund to be directly managed by its private equity arm to finance the joint venture’s projects in order to provide a unique educational experience for students from kindergarten to twelfth grade. “Our 50-50 joint venture with GEMS Education will offer our investors unique access to Egypt—MENA’s largest education market with over 20 million enrolled students,” the bank explained in a statement. “We see a substantial opportunity to create value while making a sustainable social impact on future generations,” said Karim Moussa, head of asset management and private equity at EFG Hermes. "In the upcoming two months, Hermes will launch its first investments platform in education sector in Egypt with a plan to obtain four or five schools by the end of September 2018," Moussa told Reuters on Sunday. "The group will obtain already existing schools in addition to establishing new schools, initially in Cairo and Alexandria governorates," Moussa added. Established in 1959, GEMS UAE is one of the largest school management groups in the world. It operates 47 schools in the Middle East and North Africa region and provides services for more than 115,000 students. Hermes, for its part, is currently active in a number of markets around the Middle East in Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan as well as Kenya in Africa and the United States. It was established in the Egyptian market and has expanded over more than 30 years. The Group specializes in offering financial and investment services, ranging from promotion, underwriting, asset management, brokerage, research and direct investment. Public education remains dominant in Egypts educational sector, with more than 80 percent of students enrolled in this system, which adheres to the principle of free education. However, a recent study by civil society in Egypt showed that the role of private education has increased during the past 10 years with the rise in the rate of students enrolled in it from 16 to about 20 percent.