Parents have been urged to pay school fees the easy way with Mobile Money (PHOTO/File)
As schools reopen for the last school term of the year, paying school fees should be easy, safe and convenient. Mobile Money provides a safe and seamless solution for school fees payment to more than 5,000 schools and institutions across the country.
These institutions cut across kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools as well as universities and tertiary institutions.
According to Godfrey Muhindo the Chief Commercial Officer of MTN Mobile Money Uganda, parents are able to make such payments in the comfort of their homes in a matter of minutes using their mobile phones, via short code; *165*80# or through the MTN MoMo app.
Muhindo also notes that paying school fees through MTN MoMo is particularly convenient as the system keeps track of the outstanding school fees balance which enables further payments in case a parent chooses to pay fees in instalments.
Conan Businge the Head of marketing and student recruitment at Victoria University says that this method of school fees payment has afforded many parents and students the much-needed safety and convenience of paying their tuition, especially now as the University prepares for its September intake that is set to begin on the 19th of this month.
“In the spirit of making payments easier for our students, we had to work with telecoms including MTN, to provide our university with a secure and convenient way for them to pay their fees. Uganda is advancing toward a cashless economy. Therefore, as a university that amalgamates technology across its curricula, we embraced the MTN MoMo payment solution,” Businge says.
In further highlighting the safety of using Mobile Money to pay for school fees, Businge noted that after making the payment, parents receive an instant proof of the payment in form of a text message, complete with a unique transaction ID number.
Parents who have already adopted this method of paying school fees equivocally admitted that paying school fees through Mobile Money has changed their mindset towards the traditional payment method of cash.
Gloria Nandutu, a parent who has been paying her daughter’s school fees through Mobile Money for the past couple of years, was quick to accept that it saves her time and effort. And most of all, allows her to keep close track of what used to be a big pain point in her life.
“All I had to do was request the school for my daughter’s student number,” Nandutu happily recalls.
That is the advantage of Mobile Money and the importance of a cashless economy.
How to pay school fees
To pay school fees using mobile money simply dial *165*80# for MTN *185# for Airtel or use the MTN or Airtel app.
Enter the student number provided by the school. It will show you the student’s name and class plus outstanding balance.
Once you have confirmed the student details above, you can then enter the amount you want to pay and follow the remaining prompts.
At the end of the entire process, you will receive a text message confirming the success of the payment of school fees to the school. The text message provides a transaction ID that enables the payer to reconcile the school fees payment with the school effortlessly.
