Lining up in a bank to pay school fees is one disturbance no parent wants to endure because they are already stressed by the hustle of raising money.
Therefore, many parents are happy with the emerging innovations that facilitate the payment of school dues using digital platforms.
One such parent is Kenneth Nabaasa, a businessman with learners at Genius Kings School. Nabaasa says that ever since the school introduced a digital payments system they can comfortably pay anytime anywhere.
According to Alex Mujuni, a school head teacher, they started using the Student DigPay platform by a company called Quick Post early this year [2023] and the feedback is very positive.
“The Quick Post platform has been good for us. Both the school and parents are benefiting because everything is digitized. Parents can pay fees at home, which saves both their time and the school’s time,” he says.
Student DigPay by Quick Post.
According to Ali Kibuye, the Head of Operations at Quick Post Limited, Quick Post is a FinTech that offers products to all banked and unbanked customers in Uganda.
“We do financial integrations for payments, collections, and other digital lending services to our customers,” he says, adding that with the Student DigPay product, they have enrolled more than 300 schools.
His colleague Sapex Ampurire, the Brand Manager at Quick Post, explains that the Student DigPay service uses a USSD code where the parent just dials *217*215# and they select option 9.
“When you get there, they will ask you for the student code because each student in a specific school is given a code. A parent will use that code to make a payment,” he says.
The system will first validate the details of the student to confirm that they are paying for the right person. Ampulira and Kibuye say about 350,000 students are engaged on the students’ digital pay platform.
Meanwhile, Kibuye says that they also offer school advance loans which have so far benefited more than 1500 students.
“In the field of schools, we found that many parents find trouble raising school fees payments which are needed timely at schools. We provide advanced school loans to parents who have inabilities to pay in a lump sum. Such parents go ahead and get annual loans from Quick Post which are paid directly to the schools and the parents repay monthly to Quick Post,” he said.
40 Days 40 FinTechs
Quick Post is the twenty fourth participant in Season Four of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative organised by HiPipo to showcase innovative stories in the FinTech sector that are changing lives for under-served communities.
“The 40 Days 40 FinTech has helped to sensitize other people to be aware of other systems that are being developed. Initially, it was hard for people to embrace technology but HiPipo has done a great job to inform people about other products,” Kibuye noted.
According to HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya, such products as digital school fees payments are very important in a world where every second matters.
“Today every second matters. There is no need for someone to spend two hours in a banking hall trying to pay school fees. That time can be used productively. We are happy with these innovations that are removing this time wastage and bringing convenience to parents,” he noted.
“We are also cognizant of the fact that many parents are salary earners who receive payment at the end of the month. So, these advance school fees loans offered by the FinTechs such as Quick Post are really changing lives.”
Now in its fourth season, HiPipo’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has become a household name in the financial technology space of the East African region. In the last three editions, more than 100 FinTechs have been showcased, highlighting stories changing people’s lives especially in the under-served sectors.
The 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative is organised by HiPipo in partnership with the Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner and Crosslake Technologies with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
