Oxford University Press East Africa Ltd. is a leading educational publisher in the Eastern and Central African regions. It is a branch of Oxford University Press, under Oxford Education.
The branch was started in 1954 in Nairobi, Kenya, as an editorial and sales office. Warehouses were established in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Kampala, Uganda.
OUP East Africa set the pace in local publishing with the legendary Introduction to East African Poetry and the innovative Progressive Peak English Course. These successful courses were soon followed by Modern Christian Living and GOAL Secondary English.
An authority in reference books publishing, OUP East Africa published its first edition of Kamusi ya Kiswahili Sanifu, a Kiswahili dictionary for schools and general use in 1981. This was followed by Kamusi ya Semi za Kiswahili (a dictionary of Swahili sayings).
In 1997, OUP East Africa soared to new heights in educational publishing by launching the authoritative English teaching and learning course book, New Progressive Primary English. Other course books such as Science in Action and Progressive Primary Mathematics were also added to the growing backlist.
With a fast-growing list of high quality user-friendly books, OUP East Africa has maintained market leadership in the region. Even with the shift in the Kenyan education curriculum framework, it has continued to be a trailblazer in the development and production of quality competency-based curriculum titles that have received approval for use in schools.
With the introduction of the new curriculum in Kenya, Oxford University Press East Africa (OUPEA) achieved a significant milestone by having the highest number of approved books for use in schools. To demonstrate our commitment to educational excellence and teacher support, OUPEA launched the first-ever competency-based curriculum (CBC) teacher resource material, ‘The Teacher’s Companion.’ The guide provides practical insights and tools to help educators understand CBC principles and designs of engaging learning experiences to empower learners.
In 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, OUPEA equipped teachers with the necessary skills to support digital learning.
Beyond curriculum-related training, OUPEA offered sessions on mental health, resilience, financial health, and parental engagement that over 200,000 teachers benefited from.
In 2021, OUPEA launched ‘Oxford Eduzone,’ a local digital solution and hub for digital classrooms that provides everything needed to deliver digitally enhanced lessons to learners.
In 2023, OUPEA partnered with the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) to promote the use of dictionaries and Kamusi as essential resources in Junior schools.
In 2024, Oxford University Press celebrates 70 years of excellence in publishing in Kenya as the longest-established publisher in the country. This celebration honours OUPEA’s enduring legacy of contributing to educational development and academic scholarship in East Africa. Today, OUPEA continues to publish books for the East African market, supporting curriculum changes in Uganda and Tanzania and also distributing books to Rwanda.