Mad rush for school fee loans rock Yaounde banks

To be able to meet up with deadlines for registration and successfully buy some school needs on the prospectus and booklists, parents are struggling to raise funds. There is a scramble for school fee loans in various banks and micro-finance institutions in the country in general and Yaounde in particular.

Owing to the increase in the cost of living triggered by a rise in fuel prices, the take-home package of most parents is insufficient for feeding the family and providing all the required school needs for their children.

Thus, they are resorting to other means of raising money and the destination is the banks and micro-finance institutions where they can procure loans even at relatively high interest rates.

“Over a thousand parents have been granted school fee loans from our institution since the month of July,” Fokwen Tata, Managing Director of the National Financial Credit, NFC Bank, told The Post in a chat August 5, in Yaounde.

He said with the release of the GCE results, more customers are going to come for loans, especially those whose children are going into universities. He equally stated that the NFC school fee loan scheme would end in October and parents would have 10 months to refund the money.

Rix Amana, Assistant General Manager of City Trust Credit Fund S.A, a micro-finance institution in Yaounde, declared that close to 300 of their customers have been granted school fee loans within the past month. Their customers equally have between nine to 10 months to repay the loans which are deducted directly from their monthly salaries.

One of the parents, Elvis Ndimuh, a beneficiary of a school fee loan from BICEC Bank, who spoke to The Post declared: “I don’t have a big salary, so I need this loan to take care of my children’s school needs. I can always pay it back in the next six months or so. It will greatly inconvenience me but at least my children will go to school comfortably,” he noted.

Florence Tangyi, on her part acknowledged the fact that without the school fee loan, her children would not be able to go to school.

Another means through which parents are raising money is through their reunions, commonly called “njangi”, where they save money periodically. A majority of these parents hold that if they don’t take money from their njangi houses or banks, it would be very strenuous for them to send their children to school and buy all their needs.

Parents, who are petty traders or business people and do not have any fixed income, posit that they can only hope and pray that business moves well during this period, so that they can gather enough money to provide for the school needs of their children.

One Ma Elisabeth, a “buyam-sellam” in the Mendong Market in Yaounde, expressed the fear that proceeds from her business might not be able to see her through the beginning of this 2014/2015 academic year. As a result, she told The Post that she will have to borrow money from friends or family members.

Meanwhile, various nursery, primary and secondary schools are humming with activity as parents are seeking admission and registering their kids for the forthcoming academic year.

Parents have started streaming into bookshops and tailoring workshops to procure school needs for their children. A bookshop operator at the Mvog-Mbi neighbourhood in Yaounde, Laurence Nzu, told The Post that he is well prepared for business as he has stocked the latest textbooks and stationery. Tailors are equally making money by sewing uniforms for various schools.

The market for school bags and shoes is equally booming. Parents can be spotted everywhere in town shopping for school material with a majority of them found around second-handed bags and shoes.

Dorothy Asokeh, a mother of two, revealed that if she does not do her shopping as early as now, the things would get more expensive as school reopening draws near.

Some pupils and students, on their part, have expressed the desire to work hard in the forthcoming academic year.

“I have made up my mind to study very hard this year in order to make my parents proud of me and in order not to waste their money, because, even if they don’t tell me, I know that they are sacrificing a lot to send me to school,” Lucie, a form four student of GBHS, Etoug-Ebe, stated.