- The founder noted that the use of the platform in payment of school fees will provide accountability.
- “We are trying to move on to create a more efficient, more convenient, seamless and easy method for everyone to create more accountability," he said.
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E-citizen founder James Ayugi has explained how the platform's school fee payment system works.
Ayugi also highlighted the importance of schools utilizing the mode of payment.
"The process is automated and e-citizen is just working to track what the schools are collecting in fees," he said.
Ayugi further explained how the system will help the government prevent cases of fraud in schools.
Citing cases of ghost schools and ghost students in schools, the founder noted that the use of the platform in payment of school fees will provide accountability.
"Every school has an account registered with the Ministry of Education. Every student has a registration number. When paying through e-citizen, a transaction can be tied to a student and the school in real-time," he explained.
The process is system to system and both the school and the government can track the payment of school fees as they are made, according to the e-citizen founder.
Ayugi dispelled the notion that the money paid through e-citizen goes into the treasury before it is disbursed to schools.
"Treasury has visibility of the amount of school fees being collected per school, making it easier for them to know the number of students within the ecosystem when disbursing capitation to schools," he clarified.
With E-citizen, money is paid through the platform before it is deposited into the school's bank account.
Ayugi also said the main reason why money should go through that route is to ensure accountability.
Previously, parents would pay school fees straight into the school account.
"The e-citizen acts like a super till and the national treasury is the central admin who knows the exact number of tills in each school so they can track the amount of money going into each school," Ayugi noted.
President William Ruto and other leaders have defended the move to move payment of school fees citing that it will aid in curbing issues of extra charges levied on parents.
“We are trying to move on to create a more efficient, more convenient, seamless and easy method for everyone to create more accountability; cut costs because it is an electronic digital system, improve the accuracy of funds coming to government and reduce corruption activities,” Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan said in an earlier address.