Ugandan FinTech company, Service Cops has landed a partnership with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) that will see the Ugandan outfit help to mainstream and scale up access to education in rural Ugandan communities.

The digital education technologies in the the project will see implemention in Kiryandongo district, West Nile, Acholi and Lango sub-regions.

At the partnership launch on 9 April 2021 at Mvara Secondary School in Arua, it was revealed that Service Cops’ signature product School Pay will be utilised to facilitate flexible school fees payment and will be the anchor for others services to enable parents to access financing through savings and loans for education.

Chris Lukolyo, the Digital Country Lead at UNCDF in Uganda touted the partnership’s ability to enable equitable access to education opportunities.

UNCDF and partners believe that the school payment technology and the range of new services will enable equitable access to education opportunities by providing flexible digital education services including payment options, savings and loans while at the same time helping schools to better manage their finances and processes using a school management solution.

As part of the strategy “Leaving No One Behind in the Digital Era’, UNCDF with the support of SIDA prioritized and allocated a funding of US$300,000 to support education innovations aimed at contributing to the improvement of quality education and learning in Uganda. The project is expected to serve the specific needs of people in Kiryadongo district, West Nile, Acholi and Lango sub-regions. The initiative is projected to have a significant impact on digital and financial inclusion and deepening as well as improving levels of efficiency in governance and management of over 1,600 education institutions in the regions

Service Cops is a more than decade old tech company that has been active in the Business Processes Outsourcing sector and has experience in developing value chain based financial inclusion innovations within the Banking and outside the formal financial sectors. Their SchoolPay solution has been widely used in Uganda.

Joseph Ndiho, the Director School Pay Technology reiterated that integrating School Pay technology in the learning process goes a very long way to help students and teachers stay engaged and connected.

Since we are dealing with schools that are known, we only needed to find a relevant, modern and comprehensive solution that will bridge the connection between parents and guardians, learners, teachers, the Ministry of Education and other relevant stakeholders. The technology directly links critical stakeholders in education with banks, telecom companies and insurance agencies, among others

Service Cops currently has presence in Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, and Ethiopia and is targeting to expand foot print into Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania by end of 2022.