Lack of access to credit impedes higher learning

She has twice dropped out of university due to lack tuition, but she may soon have a chance. Jane Olowo first enrolled at Makerere University Business School for a Bachelors degree in Business Administration before joining Kyambogo University. All she remembers was reporting at the university with the faith that she would get the money in the course of the semester. Her belief didn’t work to her expectation and she soon left before examinations to work as a waitress.

Her plight started when she had just joined Senior One. “I had issues with paying fees in Senior One but it got even worse after. We had to sell the garden of cassava and beans we had at the time but it wouldn’t bring out the fees I needed in S2. We only managed to get Shs70,000 yet we had hoped for about Shs300, 000,” she says. It is then that Olowo remembered some of her colleagues who were being helped by Forum for African Women Educationists. She walked to their offices and explained her situation. It worked. FAWE offered to assist her until her Senior Six as long as she continued working hard. However, despite passing with 20 points in her A’ levels, she wasn’t admitted on government scholarship at university.

Limited places

“It is not that I had failed. I scored 20 points. But the government didn’t have space for me. I applied at MUBS on private and was given BBA. I didn’t have money. So I reported and in the middle of the semester, I dropped off because things were not working out. “I decided to go and work at a hotel and after collecting the money that would carry me through university, I would rejoin,” Olowo told Education Guide. At the hotel, she was earning Shs100,000 per month, from which she couldn’t save after meeting her costs of living. A year later, she applied to another university.

“I was now given Economics and Statistics at Kyambogo University and I had hope that I would get out of this situation. I used the savings I had but when it drew closer to exams, I didn’t have the balance on tuition. I approached the then chaplain Rev Medard Birungibyayesu who gave me the remaining Shs350, 000. But how was I going to cope with second semester?” Olowo asks. Hers is just one of the many cases of students whose dreams for academic excellence are shattered by lack of finance. The government earlier this year promised to give loans to students who perform well but can’t afford higher education. The loans are to be refunded upon graduation when graduating students eventually join the workplace.

Higher Education Minister Mwesigwa Rukutana however says it will not be possible because plans of setting up a system to help guide the scheme’s operation have not been concluded. “The student loan scheme will not start this academic year. We are setting up a technical team that will guide the institution on how it will operate. Those who will benefit are for the next academic year,” Mr Rukutana said in a telephone interview.

Frustrating experience
Ms Martha Muhwezi, the FAWE national coordinator says it is frustrating to leave a brilliant child midway through her education due to limited resources. It is against this background that last month, the organisation launched a higher education scheme seeking to support students beyond secondary level where their sponsorship previously ended.“The challenge is how to access higher education. In the past, a good number of them were making it to the university on government scholarship. But when it became very competitive and emphasis (was put) on sciences, it has been difficult. “Right now we are trying to encourage them to do sciences but many of them have been doing humanities. Even when the score is as high as 22 points, there is no place for you on government sponsorship. So where do these bright girls go?” Ms Muhwezi said.

But the regional executive director, Dr Codou Diaw, believes if government, civil society and parents joined hands it would help empower the future leaders with skills needed. “Both governments, civil societies, parents and other good willed people must pull resources to support the education of our young people. This is something we can invest in because nobody invests money to lose it. Why would we pay for a girl only to stop in Senior Four or Six? It doesn’t make sense. Our goods are girls and boys of Africa and so we must continue to invest in their education. It is not an option,” Dr Diaw said.
FAWE plans to support 100 students joining university this academic year. But it is dependent on well wishers who want to change Africa through education.

Kampala businessman, Mr Charles Mbire, believes contributions from the corporate sector can increase opportunities. “I have seen a girl who today is a doctor at Mulago Hospital. She almost dropped out of school because she didn’t have school fees but somehow was picked on by a Good Samaritan. If together as corporate organisations, Ugandans and well-wishers can give in what we have, there is a better Uganda ahead,” Mr Mbire said.