With parents pacing against time juggling a number of things to make ends meet, anything that helps them conclude their children’s school affairs from wherever they are comes in handy.
This is thanks to the emergence of the Financial Technology Companies (FinTechs) that are offering a number of innovative solutions to not only ensure efficiency in service provision but also bring about convenience.
Among them is Xuldime, which provides a digital platform for parents to manage their children’s education expenses, health, academics, and other school affairs information, better from wherever they are.
According to the Xuldime Enterprise Leader Laban Jemba, the platform has several capabilities, including helping parents to conveniently pay school fees digitally, using the Xuldime Parents APP or a USSD code by dialing *270*7#.
Xuldime also runs a digital wallet that enables parents to send their children’s pocket money digitally, which is then stored on their wallet smart card to enable them to run their shopping at school canteens.
To enable this, the Xuldime system has been integrated with the mobile money platforms – MTN and Airtel – enabling real-time reflection of funds once it has been deposited on the child’s account. Banks are also now integrating, according to Jemba.
Through the App, parents can also buy scholastic materials for their children and other school needs, from the comfort of their homes or anywhere. To effect this, a parent simply goes to the platform, selects the items they want to buy, and pays through the provided platforms.
The items are then delivered to the child at school, who then uses their smart card to authenticate the delivery and receipt of the items.
Additionally, Xuldime also has attendance and academic performance monitoring solution that enables parents to monitor their children’s school performance.
Its hybrid conferencing and event management platform on the other hand is used by schools to manage their events like school days for people who cannot attend in person to follow. It also helps them disseminate reports and do target communication to particular parents.
COVID-19 triggers App upgrade
Jemba says that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered their innovative minds, leading to the upgrade of the attendance application to integrate another App that allows the Ministry of Health and its Education counterpart, with whom it is partnering for the school-based COVID-19 surveillance, to monitor COVID-19 in schools digitally.
Jemba says this enables schools to comply with the requirement for schools to report any COVID-19 related information daily and also reduces the time they would have spent capturing data manually.
40-Days 40-FinTechs
Xuldime is among the firms participating in the ongoing second edition of the 40-Days 40-FinTechs program, organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox, and Mojaloop Foundation, and sponsored by the Gates Foundation.
Jemba applauds HiPipo for the program, saying it shines a light on the innovations in the industry and also exposes them to venture capitalists and other market stakeholders. He adds that it also helps them to peer network better and to peer learn from each other.
The HiPipo Chief Executive Officer Innocent Kawooya says that FinTech is the launchpad on which the promise of full global financial inclusion will be fulfilled.
“The 40-Days 40 FinTechs LevelOneProject shall show we have the innovators to take on the challenges,” he says.
He notes that FinTechs need to be prepared with appropriate products and real-time payment systems in place to support an inclusive, interoperable digital marketplace that is both thriving and safe.
To further grow Uganda’s FinTech industry, Jemba appealed to the government to avail more money to the industry for research and more government-funded innovation hubs to help to stir up FinTech innovations to solve existing challenges.
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