Furaha and its partner banks have supported 100,000 Ugandan children with school-fee financing this year, as the financial technology company seeks to expand access to short-term credit to help families keep their children in school.
The initiative, which has reached more than 8,000 schools nationwide, enables parents to access loans to meet school-fee deadlines when their household income is delayed.
Furaha, which provides a lending technology platform to partner financial institutions, plans to extend the programme to one million children over the next two years.
The milestone comes against the backdrop of persistent challenges in Uganda’s education system, where school fees and household financial constraints can disrupt children’s learning.
According to figures cited by Furaha, fewer than eight per cent of children who enrol in primary school complete secondary education, with school fees identified as a major contributor to the dropout rate.
The company argues that some families experience difficulties not necessarily because they cannot afford education in the long term, but because school-fee deadlines arrive before salaries or other household income.
Through its partnerships with Diamond Trust Bank Uganda, Cairo Bank Uganda, Opportunity Bank Uganda and FINCA Uganda, Furaha provides technology and lending expertise to facilitate access to short-term education financing.
The platform supports customer onboarding, identity verification and credit assessment using alternative data. It is also integrated with MTN Mobile Money Uganda to facilitate loan disbursement and repayment.
The loans are intended to bridge temporary financial gaps, allowing parents to meet school-fee obligations while awaiting income.
Dennis Musinguzi, chief executive officer of Furaha Finserve Uganda Limited, said the initiative was founded on the belief that temporary cash-flow challenges should not permanently interrupt children’s education.
“Behind the 100,000 are parents who were determined not to let a question of timing interrupt their children’s education,” Musinguzi said.
He said the milestone demonstrated the potential of financing designed around the immediate needs of households, adding that the company intended to extend its reach to more families.
Godfrey Sebaana, chief executive officer and managing director of Diamond Trust Bank Uganda, said access to financial services could make a difference when it helped households address pressing needs such as education.
He said the bank was proud to support an initiative demonstrating how financial services could help families meet school-fee obligations while investing in their children’s future.
Sylvia Jagwe Owachi, acting managing director of Cairo Bank Uganda, said partnerships between financial institutions and technology providers could help address challenges that individual organisations might struggle to tackle independently.
James Onyutta, managing director of FINCA Uganda, said education financing could help families manage the timing difference between income and expenditure.
Allen Semboze, chief executive officer of Opportunity Bank Uganda, said providing parents with financing to keep their children in school reflected the bank’s commitment to expanding access to financial services among underserved communities.
Phrase Lubega, chief executive officer of MTN Mobile Money Uganda Limited, said collaboration among financial and technology institutions could improve access to digital financial services and help parents meet their education-related needs.
The expansion also comes as Uganda places greater emphasis on human capital development under the Fourth National Development Plan, which identifies investment in people as central to the country’s economic transformation.
However, the scale-up will depend on reaching more families while maintaining responsible lending practices.
Unlike scholarships or bursaries, the Furaha initiative provides credit that parents are expected to repay. While such financing may help households overcome temporary cash-flow challenges, its effectiveness will also depend on borrowers’ ability to meet repayment obligations without creating additional financial pressure.
Furaha says the next phase of the programme will retain its focus on responsible financing and direct payment of school fees to schools.
The company, which was incubated by SC Ventures, describes itself as a financial technology business providing lending infrastructure and expertise to commercial banks.
Its partners expect the model to demonstrate how collaboration between financial institutions and digital payment providers can extend access to credit for specific household needs.
The planned expansion to one million children would represent a tenfold increase from the 100,000 children the company says it has supported in 2026.
Whether the initiative can sustain that growth while ensuring that loans remain affordable for families will be an important consideration as the programme expands.
