Income trends Measured in millions

Grant across the region has remained steady. Overall, income in the region has grown by 78 per cent since 2004–05. This is a result of an increase in development contracts, particularly in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Sudan. The English and examinations business in this region has also increased.

Country share of income Measured in millions
Country in bold denotes head office
Audience engagement Measured in millions

We anticipated a downward trend in our engagement figures this year due to the closure of public access in many of our centres. As a consequence there has been a reduction of 30 per cent in our audience engagement figures.

Our strategy has been to shift our programming away from ‘passive’ engagement through centre activity where customers come to visit us, to an ‘active’ outreach engagement, through big regional projects such as InterAction, Debate to Action and Connecting Classrooms.

Audience reach Measured in millions

The result of our shift to outreach programmes can be seen in the audience reach figures, which have increased by 700 per cent from last year. This is a result of the regional strategy to introduce online and broadcast products for wider audiences. For example, in Ghana a reality television initiative promoting Education UK reached 5.8 million people.

Customer satisfaction scores Measured in millions

Our customer service results show continuing year-on-year gains. This also ties in with significant improvements in our ‘mystery shopper’ scores. During the course of 2007–08 we introduced a training programme for staff, which has a strong emphasis on business development and customer care. We also introduced customer service awards for staff and we improved our telephone technology.

Performance impact and looking aheadThe 2007–08 evaluation of long-term outcomes was carried out in Nigeria. The overall result fell from last year but remains high at 81. This is based on high score levels for both benefits of working with the British Council and increased links with the UK.

There are improvements against last year’s very high results on all corporate output impact scores, even on long-term relationships, where an already exceptionally high 87 was pushed up to 88. There is clear evidence for the success of regional products in delivering this greater impact.