By Adons Aryong
For the last half of a century, Uganda’s vibrant education system held onto traditional models of school fees collections through direct bank deposits and cash payments at school. This old model, while it is appreciated for keeping live physical interactions among teachers and parents; it robbed them of the much needed time and resources that could have been used elsewhere.
To paint a similar scenario, just four years ago at PostBank, we had over 80-90 percent of school fees being made over the counter. Parents endured long queues in banking halls, and we had to deal with the reconciliation nightmare that would happen during those manual transactions.
However, the last decade has been a game changer with banks, telecoms and Startups spearheading mobile and digital banking solutions for school fees payments, which makes it a much easier alternative to traditional models. Urban schools led the adoption of these new innovations from banks, followed by other schools in the countryside where financial inclusion is still limited.
At PostBank, we have kept up with the digital pace, realising that in today’s fast-paced world, parents, students and schools demand the much needed flexibility and convenience in how to manage school-related expenses.
PostBank provides a range of digital options such as internet and mobile banking platforms, a wide agent network, user-friendly PostApp, and the Wendi wallet with a self onboarding system; all made possible with the School Pay partnership.
These innovations allow parents to process school fees payments seamlessly at no charge, with just a tap on their smartphones. Even those using basic and feature phones can conveniently make payments via USSD codes.
This growing demand for flexibility reflects PostBank’s shift towards digitalisation as the bank accommodates the busy lifestyles of modern families, and the bank’s desire for fostering prosperity for all Ugandans.
This shift means that close to 2000 students and parents who manually came to banking halls now use our digital platforms, providing a success rate of 60-80%.
Our digital solutions have enabled parents and school administrators to juggle multiple responsibilities without the inconvenience of long queues. Schools, in turn, benefit from streamlined tracking of payments, eliminating the inefficiencies of paper-based processes.
Operational efficiency
As a bank, the shift to digital platforms to enhance school fees payments has been marked with improving our operational efficiency which feeds into revenue growth and other income generating activities. .
The cost of processing these digital transactions is much less, and even the time spent with manual work is reduced to a 30- 50 percent rate, a trend that is changing the industry.
The achievements made in the short period points to a much brighter future with the emergence of super apps. As a tech savvy banker, I envision a future where super apps will complete school fees payments and other related transactions such as extracurricular activities.
These platforms will integrate multiple transaction touchpoints within the school ecosystem into a single solution, leveraging artificial intelligence, digital security, biometric authentication, and facial recognition technology.
As digital adoption grows, so do cybersecurity threats. At PostBank, we are committed to safeguarding client data through robust cybersecurity measures, including dedicated cyber units that oversee risk mitigation. We’re aware of the risks and as a bank, it’s our responsibility to ensure that we have those controls on these platforms.
The author is Head Data Analytics & Retail Products at PostBank.