A Biography of Dr. Lydiah Kemunto Bosire (Founder of 8B Education Investments): Career, Social Media.

Dr. Lydiah Kemunto Bosire is the Founder and CEO of 8B Education Investments, the first VC-backed student finance platform facilitating affordable loans for Africa’s globally mobile university students.

8B’s platform innovatively brings together lenders and universities and equips students to search, compare, and apply for financing options, thereby building a bridge to the fastest-growing, university-age population in the world.

8B is on a mission to enable African brilliance to have a global impact by connecting underserved students with world-class universities, affordable financing, and career networks.

8B also provides tools for African students to identify best-fit global universities and level up their applications with career support for job placement.

Lydiah and 8B have been featured on CNN International, Bloomberg, and Forbes. 8B was invited to commit at the September 2022 meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).

Lydiah also serves on the Board of Directors of WorldQuant University.

Life of “Dr. Lydiah Kemunto Bosire” At a Glance:

Full Name: Dr. Lydiah Kemunto Bosire

Place of Birth: Kisii, Kenya

Nationality: Kenyan

Fields of Expertise: Economist

Institutions: University of Oxford, Cornell

Contributions: Founded 8B Education Investments

Birth, Education, and Early Life of “Dr. Lydiah Kemunto Bosire” :

A Kenyan national, Lydiah brings her personal education journey, and over eighteen years of work experience focused on issues of international politics, development, and human rights.

Like many brilliant Africans today, the founder of 8B Education Investments, Dr Lydiah Kemunto Bosire, faced various challenges in pursuing her dreams.

It all started in the heart of Kenya, where a young and brilliant Lydiah Kemunto Bosire built her secondary education in Limuru, Kenya.

Like many Kenyans looking for opportunities after high school, Lydiah was sourcing on Kenya’s Daily Nation classified section when she saw an announcement for a scholarship.

Having a former schoolmate receive one of these scholarships inspired Lydiah to take the leap and apply to the United World Colleges in the UK.

As a result, she received a full scholarship to Cornell University and later received another opportunity to advance her education at the University of Oxford.

After winning scholarships that enabled her to be an academic and the beneficiary of renowned universities such as Cornell and Oxford, she founded 8B Education Investments.

Her academic triumphs came to fruition on her graduation day in the famous Sheldonian Theatre. With her parents by her side, Lydiah not only achieved her dreams that day but also fulfilled her father’s long-held aspirations.

Despite these remarkable achievements, Lydiah does not see herself as an exception. Instead, she recognizes that across Africa countless equally intelligent and capable individuals could have been recipients of the scholarships she received.

In her eyes, the selection process is a mere lottery, with chance determining who among equally smart aspirants gets the opportunity to pursue their dreams.

Dr. Bosire has four degrees, a Master’s and a PhD. Lydiah holds a doctorate (D.Phil) in Politics from the University of Oxford (New College). She holds additional degrees from Oxford and Cornell.

Career

Her career has been all about traveling the world. From the UK, Paris, and the US, she has walked into important rooms and mingled with the leaders of our modern world.

Before leading 8B, Lydiah’s career spanned nearly two decades as a diplomat including serving at the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General at the UN Secretariat, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization.

An expert in development finance, at the UN, she managed the relationship with the World Bank on the Global Concessionary Financing Facility.

Previously, she served as an advisor to the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program at Schimdt Futures, a mentor of the Oxford Women in Business network, on the founding Board of Directors of Keep a Child Alive, on the Council of the Global Citizen Impact Funds, as a Senior Advisor at MacroAdvisory Partners, and on the UWC Atlantic College Advisory Council.

Earlier in her serial problem-solving career, she co-founded Oxford Transitional Justice Research and pioneered the YouthForce HIV/AIDS advocacy platform while still in college.

Founding 8B Education Investments

As a result of her academic success, Lydiah worked with the UN and the World Bank. As a result, she noticed a visible gap in the representation of African voices in positions of influence.

This observation recurred enough times to influence Dr Bosire to form 8B Education Investments as a company rather than a non-profit, which provides 8B with enough space to scale.

8B Education Investments uses education to get African talent in global spaces that provide the technological infrastructure and financial capital to facilitate idea creation, premiering, and innovating while providing these innovators with impactful mentorships.

On a mission to scale mentorship, 8B now provides a technology solution that makes them more accessible to students with their newest feature, Ladder by 8B, found on their website at africaglobaleducation.com.

The mentorship feature scales up vital connections for prospective African students interested in joining global universities and 8B students seeking advice on their career path after university.

The Impact of 8B Investments

8B Education Investments is not merely a lending program, it is a transformative force that aims to ensure Africa’s brightest minds participate in global decision-making.

At present, there is a notable absence of African representation at global tables. This limits the continent’s influence and perpetuates outdated perceptions.

Lydiah envisions an Africa acknowledged as an intellectual equal, actively contributing to the global knowledge economy and creating solutions for the collective good.

8B mobilizes investment capital which is not available for philanthropic education initiatives on the continent. The company does not compete for the philanthropic capital at the bottom of the pyramid.