Furaha, a financial technology business has entered into partnership with Opportunity Bank and MTN mobile money to offer education financing to Ugandans
The partnership announced on Wednesday will see Furaha enable Ugandans acquire loans from Opportunity Bank through MTN mobile money.
Furaha as a technology company continues to bring like-minded players to meet goals of the community. We want to do something different to change humanity. We have built a platform which enables customers acquire loans and send the money directly to school using MTN,” said Yustus Aribariho, the Furaha co- founder.
He explained that the loans will be provided by Opportunity Bank and go through MTN channel to ensure it reaches school directly.
According to Aribariho, in their quest to impact over 10 million children in sub–Saharan Africa in the next five years, they have disbursed over shs1 billion , helping over 2000 learners to stay in school in the last five months.
“With such partners like MTN and Opportunity Bank, we will make a difference.”
Denis Musinguzi, the CEO at Furaha said only 30% of targeted school fees is collected by schools on the opening day of the term which takes a heavy toll on these institutions of learning.
“ This means a school has to go to financial institutions to bridge this gap which means more costs. It also means you will compromise on a few things like good teachers and feeding. What we are doing is helping schools collect 100% targeted school fees on the opening day. This way, everyone in the value chain including the schools, parents and children will benefit,” Musinguzi said.
Owen Amanya, the CEO of Opportunity Bank Uganda said the bank focuses on financing critical areas in society, education being one of them.
“We focus on critical areas to impact rural areas or those we think are excluded. We focus in education as one of the critical areas. We target schools helping poor children or those from poor background to get better studying environments. We are therefore committed to ensuring everyone gets better education by financing schools,” Amanya said.
“We love such partnerships since they simplify the journey by giving quicker access to finances for parents.”
The MTN mobile money Senior Manager for Savings and Loans, Hellen Kirungi said they have in the past invested in education financing as one of the ways to unlock brighter future for many families that cant afford fess
“As MOMO, we believe a child shouldn’t miss school because of financial burdens. This partnership is therefore a great initiative to take forward this cause. We take pride in a network which is so vast and reaches even the most remote areas. Therefore, in this, we partner with such with credible players to leverage on each other’s strength to create an eco-system which speaks to needs of the customer,”Kirungi said.