Dr Adam Mugume, the Executive Director for Research Bank of Uganda says that banks incur expenditures to offer services and there is a justification for users of these bank services to contribute to the running costs.
Bankers have advised parents paying school fees, to use alternatives if they do not want to pay bank charges.
Most commercial banks are also charging at rates far beyond what they submitted to the Bank of Uganda, which it publishes regularly.
This comes as more parents prepare to send back their children to school starting next month, amidst reduced incomes due to the effects of the covid- 19 pandemic.
Most parents are worried about how they will raise the required money to pay for the educational requirements of their children and incomes dwindled.
Some surveys show that many children have already dropped out of school, with some in candidate classes failing to return when they were recalled in October last year. Most parents either lost their jobs or had their incomes reduced when they or the reality of the pandemic hit.
A good number has also remained in the situation to-date, and the thought of schools re-opening causes nightmares, and are calling for government intervention to see that schools reduce the fees.
Schools have generally turned down requests to reduce the fees, arguing that the cost of living has generally gone up and that they too need more money to sustain the operations.
On the contrary, some are demanding arrears from the period that the children were sent home after a government directive in March last year.
The government, which is appealing to the schools to be considerate to parents, says it cannot compel the owners to reduce the fees or other costs.
Banks have also been accused of contributing to the costs to the parents by charging them whenever they or their children are banking the fees. The bank charges on depositing of school have for long been challenged by parents, who question what the money is for and who benefits from it.The argument is that the parent is depositing money into a school account, not their account and that if any charge were to be made, it should be met by the school, whose money it is.“I am not the one who chose to pay fees through this bank. It is the school that chose it and forced it on me. Why should I be made to pay for it?” says […]
