How a Kampala School Increased Fee Collection by 30% with Digital Payments

There is a number that keeps every school director in Uganda awake at night: the fee collection rate. It is the single most important financial metric for any private school, because uncollected fees do not just mean lost revenue — they mean unpaid teachers, deferred maintenance, cancelled programmes, and ultimately, a lower quality of education for every student.

Nakasero Heights Academy, a private primary and secondary school in Kampala's Nakasero Hill area, knows this pressure intimately. For years, the school operated with a fee collection rate that hovered around 64%. That meant more than a third of the fees the school was owed never actually arrived. This is the story of how they turned that number around — reaching 94% collection within three terms — by switching to DesisPay's digital payment system.

A School With a Collection Crisis

Nakasero Heights Academy was founded in 2008 and has grown to serve 1,150 students across primary and secondary sections. The school charges competitive fees — UGX 1,200,000 per term for primary day scholars and UGX 2,800,000 for secondary boarders — and has invested significantly in facilities, including a modern science laboratory, a computer lab, and a well-stocked library.

But the school's finances told a troubling story.

The Numbers That Did Not Add Up

At the start of every term, the bursar's office would calculate the total fees expected based on enrolled students. And at the end of every term, they would calculate what had actually been collected. The gap was consistent and devastating:

• Term 1 2025: UGX 1.38 billion expected, UGX 897 million collected (65%)
• Term 2 2025: UGX 1.38 billion expected, UGX 869 million collected (63%)
• Term 3 2024: UGX 1.35 billion expected, UGX 864 million collected (64%)

The school was losing approximately UGX 500 million per term — roughly UGX 1.5 billion per year — in uncollected fees.

Why Were Fees Going Uncollected?

The school director, Mr. Emmanuel Kato, commissioned an internal review to understand why. The findings pointed to several interconnected problems:

1. Inconvenient payment methods — The school only accepted bank deposits, cash at the bursar's office, or cheques. Each method required parents to take time out of their day to physically make a payment.

2. No partial payment tracking — Parents who wanted to pay in installments faced a manual process. The bursar had to track each partial payment by hand, and errors were common. Some parents stopped paying altogether because they believed they had paid more than the school's records showed.

3. No automated reminders — The school relied on printed circulars sent home with students and occasional phone calls from the bursar. Both methods were unreliable. Circulars got lost in school bags. Phone calls were time-consuming and uncomfortable for both parties.

4. Late payment culture — Without a convenient system and consistent reminders, a culture of late payment had taken root. Many parents simply waited to be asked repeatedly before paying, knowing that the school rarely sent students home for fees.

"We had parents who could afford to pay but simply did not prioritize it because we made it too difficult and too easy to ignore at the same time. We made it difficult to pay but easy to not pay. That was our fundamental problem." — Mr. Emmanuel Kato, School Director

The Decision to Go Digital

Mr. Kato first heard about DesisPay from a parent who worked in the fintech industry and suggested the school look into digital fee collection. After a demonstration and conversations with two other Kampala schools already using DesisPay, the board approved a full implementation starting in Term 3 2025.

What DesisPay Offered

The DesisPay package for Nakasero Heights Academy included:

• MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money integration — Parents could pay fees directly from their mobile phones, 24/7
• Automated fee tracking — Every payment, whether full or partial, was automatically recorded and reflected on the parent's account in real time
• Automated SMS reminders — Configurable reminders sent at strategic intervals throughout the term
• Parent self-service portal — Parents could check their balance, view payment history, and download receipts at any time
• Real-time dashboard for administration — The bursar and school director could see collection progress in real time, broken down by class, section, and individual student

The Implementation Timeline

DesisPay's school success team completed the setup in seven working days:

• Week 1, Days 1-3: Data migration. All 1,150 student records, fee structures, and outstanding balances were imported into the system
• Week 1, Days 4-5: System configuration and staff training
• Week 2, Days 1-2: Parent communication. Every parent received an SMS with instructions on how to pay via mobile money, along with the school's unique pay code

The Three Strategies That Changed Everything

Simply making mobile money available was not enough on its own. DesisPay's system enabled Nakasero Heights to implement three specific strategies that, together, produced the 30-percentage-point improvement in collection rates.

Strategy 1: Make Payment Effortless

Before DesisPay, paying fees required a trip to the bank or to the school. Now, a parent can pay in under 60 seconds from anywhere. The process is straightforward:

1. Dial the MTN Mobile Money or Airtel Money menu
2. Select "Pay Bill" or "Lipa"
3. Enter the school's merchant code and the student's registration number
4. Enter the amount
5. Confirm with PIN

The payment is instantly recorded in DesisPay and the parent receives a confirmation SMS with the receipt and updated balance.

This simplicity had an immediate effect. In the first week of Term 3 2025, the school collected more in fees than it had collected in the entire first month of Term 2 2025.

Mrs. Harriet Namutebi, a parent and marketing executive, explained the difference:

"Before, I had to go to the bank during lunch hour, stand in a queue, fill in a deposit slip, and then take a photo of the slip to WhatsApp to the bursar. It was a 45-minute ordeal every time. Now I pay in one minute while sitting at my desk. I have no excuse not to pay on time."

Strategy 2: Structured Installment Plans

One of the most impactful features was DesisPay's ability to support and track structured installment plans. Instead of demanding full payment upfront (which many families genuinely could not manage), the school configured flexible payment schedules:

• Option A: Full payment before the term begins (5% early payment discount)
• Option B: Two installments — 60% by week 2, 40% by week 6
• Option C: Three installments — 40% by week 1, 30% by week 4, 30% by week 8

Parents selected their preferred plan at the beginning of the term, and the system automatically tracked their progress against the schedule. If a parent fell behind, they received a gentle reminder specific to their chosen plan.

The results were striking:

• 43% of parents chose Option B (two installments)
• 31% of parents chose Option C (three installments)
• 26% of parents chose Option A (full payment, often to receive the discount)
• Only 6% of parents who selected an installment plan failed to complete all payments by end of term

"The installment plans removed the biggest barrier. Many of our parents earn monthly salaries. Asking them for UGX 2.8 million at once is hard. Asking for UGX 1.1 million three times over nine weeks is manageable. We were not collecting less — we were collecting the same amount in a way that fit their cash flow." — Mrs. Sarah Kiyingi, Bursar

Strategy 3: Smart, Automated Reminders

The third pillar was DesisPay's automated reminder system. The school configured reminders at specific intervals:

1. Two weeks before term: "Term 1 begins on [date]. Fees for [student name] are UGX [amount]. Pay via Mobile Money using code [code]."
2. Week 1 of term: Balance reminder with payment instructions
3. Installment due dates: Personalized reminders based on the parent's chosen plan
4. Mid-term: A progress update showing amount paid and remaining balance
5. Week 7: A final reminder for any outstanding balance

Each SMS was personalized with the parent's name, the student's name, the specific amount owed, and clear payment instructions. No parent could claim they did not know what they owed or how to pay.

The reminders were carefully worded to be informative rather than threatening — a deliberate decision by the school:

"We did not want to sound like debt collectors. These are our parents, our partners in education. The tone of every message was respectful and helpful. And it worked far better than the angry phone calls we used to make." — Mr. Emmanuel Kato

The Results: From 64% to 94%

The impact was visible from the very first term on DesisPay. Here is the progression:

That is a 30-percentage-point improvement from the pre-DesisPay average of 64% to 94% by the second term.

What the Numbers Mean in Practice

The additional UGX 461 million collected in Term 1 2026 (compared to a typical pre-DesisPay term) directly funded:

• Full and timely salary payments for all 68 teaching and non-teaching staff — eliminating the delays that had previously caused frustration and staff turnover
• Laboratory equipment upgrades worth UGX 45 million for the secondary science programme
• A school bus down payment of UGX 120 million, which had been deferred for three years due to budget shortfalls
• A 15% increase in the feeding budget, improving the quality of school meals

"The fees were always owed to us. The money was always there. We just were not collecting it. DesisPay did not change our parents — it changed our system." — Mr. Emmanuel Kato

What Other Schools Can Learn

Nakasero Heights Academy's experience offers several clear lessons for schools struggling with fee collection:

Lesson 1: Remove Friction From Payment

The easier it is to pay, the more parents will pay on time. Mobile money integration removes the need for bank visits, cash handling, and receipt chasing. If a parent can pay in one minute from their phone, they are far more likely to pay today rather than putting it off until next week.

Lesson 2: Offer Flexibility, Not Rigidity

Demanding full payment upfront excludes parents who are willing and able to pay but need to do so in stages. Structured installment plans, properly tracked by a digital system, dramatically increase completion rates without reducing total revenue.

Lesson 3: Communicate Consistently and Respectfully

Automated reminders work because they are consistent, timely, and impersonal — no parent feels singled out or embarrassed. Every parent receives the same reminders at the same intervals. This removes the awkwardness from fee conversations and normalizes timely payment.

Lesson 4: Use Data to Identify Problems Early

DesisPay's real-time dashboard allowed the Nakasero Heights administration to identify collection problems by the second week of term rather than discovering them at the end. When they noticed that Senior 4 collection was lagging, they were able to investigate and discover that many S4 parents were waiting for UNEB results before committing to the next term. A targeted communication resolved the issue within days.

A New Financial Foundation

Eighteen months ago, Nakasero Heights Academy was a school with excellent academics but precarious finances. Today, the school operates with financial confidence. The bursar no longer spends her days making uncomfortable phone calls. The director no longer lies awake wondering whether he can make payroll. And parents no longer dread the logistics of fee payment.

The transformation was not about technology for technology's sake. It was about removing the barriers that stood between willing parents and the school that serves their children.

"Every school in Kampala — every school in Uganda — deserves to operate with this level of financial clarity. The fees are there. The parents want to pay. You just need to build the bridge. DesisPay is that bridge." — Faith Nabukenya, Finance Director, DesisPay