Stanbic Bank Uganda has come up with a back to school promotion focusing on sensitizing their customers and parents on various convenient solutions and options; that are available to them to pay school fees.
Nile Post Reporter Ambrose Gahene, caught up with Stanbic Bank’s Head of Public Sector, Milly Kyolaba in an interview.
How is Stanbic Bank making it easy for parents to pay school fees?
Milly: At Stanbic Bank, we are excited about the New Year and we also understand that back to school time is a very hectic period for most parents. That is why we have come up with the back to school promotion focusing on sensitizing our customers and parents on the various convenient solutions and options that are available to them to pay school fees.
To make it easy for parents, Stanbic Bank offers a range digital payment options to pay schools fees. This makes it possible to pay conveniently, at any time, even from the comfort of your home. Therefore, avoiding the long queues in the banking halls.
The Stanbic Bank digital payment options for school fees include: mobile banking *290#, online banking and using Stanbic agents available across the country. We have also partnered with Mobile Network Operators of MTN & Airtel to enable school fees payments using Mobile Money through FlexiPay and SchoolPay.
What are the advantages of using these platforms?
Paying school fees through the Stanbic Bank digital option makes it very convenient for parents and guardians because payments can be made from anywhere without the hustle of visiting a branch and queuing up.
This eliminates unnecessary transport costs and parents or guardians are able to make real savings especially our customers who are paying school fees directly from their bank account at no extra charge. Just to give you an example: there are no school fees bank charges incurred by Stanbic Bank customers who make payments using our Mobile (*290#) and Online Banking platforms.
Users are also assured of secure payments, as our solutions verify each student and school before making a payment and they receive an instant confirmation of payment with all details (School & Student name, Amount paid) on their mobile phone with a unique payment number for future reference.
The school, on the other hand, gets the benefit of being immediately notified when a school fees payment is made. In addition, the system allows for automated reconciliations of collections which helps eliminate forgeries and reduce on wasteful administrative costs such as paperwork.
How do parents sign up to use the digital banking platforms?
All Stanbic Bank customers automatically have access to our digital banking platforms. In addition, schools are also entitled access to the digital payments and collection solutions of FlexiPay and School Pay. The solutions are absolutely free, and access is enabled within 24 hours. For our USSD digital channel customers can dial *290# and follow the prompts. This service offering is free of charge and does not require one to have airtime. We have also rolled out Agent Banking across the country. With a network of over 1000 Stanbic Bank Agents, all members of the public can access several banking services Customers with cash can pay their school fees at any of the Stanbic Bank agent nearest them without necessarily owning a bank account with us.
What is the advantage of using Stanbic Agent Banking?
Milly: Stanbic Bank has several agents spread across the country and are closer to the customer. Therefore, anyone can make their payments conveniently without having to queue at the bank. The common services offered on Agent banking are; school fees payments, utility payments, cash deposits, cash withdrawals and account opening. Stanbic Bank has over 1,000 agent outlets strategically located across the country enabling us to serve as many customers as possible. All these agents have been adequately trained to provide banking services consistent with that offered in the banking halls.
Is there anything new customers should look forward to as we prepare for back to school?
Yes, we have an exciting promotion for parents and guardians in our back to school promotion. Parents stand a chance to win free prizes when they use their visa card to pay and purchase school items. This promotion will only run at 3 supermarkets starting from Friday 1st February 2019 to Sunday 3rd Feb 2019 at Capital shoppers Nakawa, Capital shoppers Ntinda and Game Lugogo.
