Since 2020, SchoolGEAR, a system developed by Cogebanque, has been helping parents to pay school fees conveniently without having to move to the bank or the schools. The system can be easily accessible through phone by dialling *700# and following instructions, or click on www.pay.schoolGear.rw . A parent can pay by using MTN Mobile Money, any Cogebanque branch, or via our agents available across the country. According to Tony Rwema, a Product Manager in the Digital Banking Department of Cogebanque, the bank rolled out the system after realising that their branches were experiencing long queues of people who wanted to pay school fees as the schools were reopening. He said that this would make them spend a long time at the bank and sometimes lead to cancellation of other plans they had. “But with SchoolGEAR,” he stressed, “you can pay school fees from anywhere you are. We provided this system to schools so that when a parent is done paying, the school is notified. It also has details if the payment is for uniforms, school fees, transport, and so on.” “What the school accountant was doing before,” continued Rwema, “is now being done by the bank. For instance, if they want to know students who have paid and those who haven’t, they can do it by just filtering. Reporting has also become easy.” Rwema said that for a school to use the system, they have to be Cogebanque’s client and the bank has to ensure every student at the school can get a code to use while paying. He noted that the use of this system is free on the bank’s side. “We provided the system to schools that work with us because they are good customers. We don’t charge them any fee even when they need maintenance or any kind of support,” he said before urging more schools to approach them and embrace the pros of SchoolGEAR. Beatrice Mukanshimiye, an accountant at École Privée Marie Auxiliatrice (EPMA) is using the system. She said that before making the decision, the school was using a manual program which would require parents to bring receipts at the school for them to be entered and processed. “It would take us much time and sometimes, parents would lose those receipts. That would compel us to go back to the bank to check transaction history and confirm if the payment was truly received,” she said. “Around 92 per cent of our parents are using the system and when they pay, we automatically get notified. They are happy and have embraced cashless payment. It eases their work because they can pay from wherever they are and no longer waste money coming here at school.” Her counterpart at St Joseph Primary School – Kicukiro, who preferred anonymity said that with the new system, they no longer make human errors that they encountered when they used to manually make data entry. While using the manual system, she said they would misplace payment information or even forget to add it which would result in complaints from students and parents. She urged other schools to approach Cogebanque and get the system, hence saving their time. About Cogebanque Plc Cogebanque (Compagnie Générale de Banque Plc) is a Rwanda based commercial bank, licensed by the National Bank of Rwanda. It started operations in 1999. It is one of the fastest growing banks in Rwanda and today has 28 branches, over 600 agents, and 36 ATMs across the country. These are supported by Mobile banking (USSD on *505# and Mobile App “Coge mBank”), Cards (Mastercards, Smart cash & SafariBus), SchoolGEAR and internet banking delivery channels accessible through different media. Cogebanque has been serving Rwandan industries for over 23 years with innovative services to its customers and has positively affected the Rwandan economy. Cogebanque provides a comprehensive range of products and services targeted at corporate, SMEs and retail customers. For more information visit www.cogebanque.co.rw
