NairoBits Trust and the London School of Economics (LSE) have worked together since 2018, most visibly through the SBize programme, which supports young people to build enterprises that are commercially viable and socially useful at the same time.
In February 2025 that collaboration moved into a new phase: a physical, in-person research partnership designed to measure what our programmes actually change in participants’ lives — not just what they complete.
Why in-person research
Remote surveys and completion statistics tell you who finished a course. They are much weaker at telling you what happened afterwards: whether income changed, whether a business survived its first year, whether a household’s circumstances shifted, and which parts of the training were responsible.
Working with LSE researchers on the ground allows for direct interviews with participants, visits to the enterprises they are running, and conversations with their families and communities. It is slower and more demanding than a questionnaire, and it produces evidence that is far harder to argue with.
What the partnership looks at
- Livelihood outcomes for graduates of our digital skills and enterprise programmes
- The survival and growth of enterprises started through SBize
- Which elements of the curriculum and mentorship carry the most weight after graduation
- Barriers that continue to hold participants back once training has ended
How we use the findings
Evidence from this partnership feeds directly into programme design: what we keep, what we cut, and where we concentrate mentorship and follow-up support. It also strengthens the case we make to funders and partners, who are increasingly — and rightly — asking organisations to show real-world impact rather than activity.
We are grateful to the LSE team for their continued commitment to this work, and to the participants who have given their time to it.
