The new academic year 2019/2020 that started this August saw all public universities close their tuition fees bank accounts all of over the country following a directive from the Ministry of Finance earlier this year.
The Ministry of Finance passed a directive to tax collecting body, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to start collecting fees from all public universities on behalf of the government.
The new development was in response to the escalating numbers of ghost enrollments in public universities. The government also said that some universities were not submitting all the money they were collecting.
How to pay
Students in public universities such as Makerere, MUBs, Kyambogo, Gulu University among others will now be required to get a Payment Reference Number (PRN) which they are expected to generate through the student portal on their respective AIMS systems. Students can, however, get help with generating the PRN from their respective accounts offices.
A student will then be respected to make the payment in any commercial bank with a cover letter.
If a student is paying by bank draft, they will have to address their drafts to URA before attaining the reference number for payment.
URA has set up units in all public universities for the students who prefer paying by Electronic Funds Transfer.
Earlier this year, in a brief interview with the NilePost following the directive, URA Assistant Commissioner for Public and Corporate Affairs Jamil Ssenyonjo said that they will ensure transparency in the system.
He said that URA will however not be mandated to deal with fees defaulters as they are not taking over administrative work of universities.
