Back to school — it’s a time for anticipation, excitement, fresh starts, and new opportunities. This is especially true as secondary and primary schools’ welcome students back after a very short break.
The schools’ calendar was disrupted last year after the students were grounded for the last school year due to COVID-19.
Children deserve to go to school, and it is prudent to make it easy for parents and the government to provide them with this basic right. Banks continue to support the development of the education sector, with offerings that are targeted at reducing the financial burden on parents, students, and schools, and by facilitating the ease of payment of fees without hassles and in meeting other specific needs.
This is usually a hectic season especially for working parents who usually have to queue for long hours at bookshops and school uniform outlets as they buy supplies for their children. Scenes of long queues around banks on school opening days as parents try to pay school fees are not that uncommon.
With advances in technology, the situation is getting better. As learners went back to school this week, the queues were shorter with many parents embracing solutions that enable them to shop online and pay school fees directly to the school collection accounts without setting foot at their bank branches.
Equity under its digital strategy has continued to be a leader in this field, providing customers with an array of payment solutions. These efforts are geared towards enhancing the customers’ overall banking experience, delivering convenience and maximizing value to them especially in this pandemic era while maintaining the set guidelines by the Ministry of Health.
To ease the strain by paying school fees straight from your phone through Equity Mobile App, *247# or Equitel. Equity similarly offers credit facilities for school fees and top-ups for parents who may require the service. Eazzy Loan can easily be accessed through dialling *247# on any network.
Many parents and children flock to the markets and e-platforms to buy uniforms, stationery, shoes, and other items, to make payments they can use their Equity credit and debit cards at any Visa, AMEX or Mastercard branded merchant at no extra cost. Additionally, to enhance safety and better budgeting with the relaunched prepaid card, parents and guardians can top up the card with pocket money for their children.
With the development of a new curriculum and its implementation, most schools are going through infrastructural advances. The bank through its SME and corporate offering has tailormade credit facilities available to educational institutions to meet these needs. The schools can easily access working capital and loans through their Equity nearest branches. The features of this pack include easy fee collections, and other value-add services for online banking and real-time finance management tools via EazzyBiz.
The SDGs note that there has been major progress in education access, specifically at the primary school level, for both boys and girls. However, access does not always mean the quality of education or completion of primary school. Mobilizing additional resources for education in tackling some of the basic needs for schools and students is not something that education systems can solve on their own. Hence the need for a reliable financial partner to walk the journey with them.