SchoolPay, a leading education Fintech solution powered by Fincom Technologies has entered into partnership with the National Private Educational Institutions Association-Uganda (NPEIA-UG) to enhance digital transformation, financial transparency, and operational efficiency across private educational institutions in Uganda.
According to officials, by partnering with SchoolPay, the association aims to equip its members with advanced financial management tools to solve long-standing challenges in fees collection and school administration.
Charity Atukwatsa, the CEO for Fincom Technologies said the company seeks to provide value to the entire education ecosystem, noting that the partnership will greatly benefit both parties.
“We started by introducing SchoolPay platform which we believe has improved transparency in schools because they are able to see payments coming through and going to school accounts. We have eased how parents pay, we have brought convenience and transparency in schools. We believe that when we work together, we will ensure no child’s education is interrupted. By integrating our technology with NPEIA-UG’s extensive network, we are providing private schools with the transparency and security needed to thrive in a digital economy,” Atukwatsa said.
“This partnership will enable us reach more schools that we had previously not reached. We have been working with schools on an individual level but with this partnership, we will be working with them as a group.”
Currently serving over 20,100 schools and 8.95 million students across Africa, SchoolPay facilitates over $3 billion in transactions annually.
Officials said in Uganda, SchoolPay facilitates over shs3 trillion in transactions annually.
The Fincom Technologies CEO said with the new partnership, they will help schools control fees defaulting with access to structured and transparent fee collection systems that minimize arrears, improve accountability, and ensure predictable revenue streams.
“We will help reduce learner dropout by enabling flexible and accessible school fees payment arrangements for parents. We will help promote sustainable school financing through introducing responsible school financing mechanisms that enhance liquidity, stabilize operations, and support timely payment of staff and service providers,” Atukwatsa said.
She explained that away from school fees, they help strengthen school information management systems to promote adoption of modern system to improve data management, reporting, communication with parents, and overall institutional efficiency.
“We promote operational efficiency by enabling all schools to acess to a full suite of management tools including academic modules, payroll, and staff management through the schoolPay platform.”
The secretary general for NPEIA, Alex John Sseruwu hailed the partnership that he said will support private educational institutions through modern school financing solutions, reduction of learner dropout, improved control of school fees defaulting, and enhanced School Information Management Systems (SIMS).
“While previously learners had to undergo long queues and breakdown of internet for banks which saw parents resort to bringing cash to school which was also risky, ShcoolPay has made it easy and convenient for them to pay fees. For schools, it has reduced fees defaulting and control learner dropout but also schools can effectively budget because they know who has paid and who has not,” Sseruwu said.
He said while a number of their members had already onboarded SchoolPay, many of them were yet to join but said with the partnership, many will be helped to join.
“Through this partnership, schools will be able to strengthen cash flow management through digital payment systems .We will be able to support the digital transformation agenda within Uganda’s education system.”
Didas Orikiriza, the Executive Director NPEIA-UG said the partnership will go a long way in ensuring more private institutions are onboarded on SchoolPay to help them reap benefits.
“Going digital with SchoolPay has helped improve accountability both on finance, academic, inventory audits and human resource management. Private schools depend on incomes that schools fees and real time payments facilitate easy planning but most importantly on side of parents, most of whom are farmers , it enables them pay during pick season of harvest. You can pay school fee upfront so you don’t have challenges in the future,” Orikiriza said.