For thousands of Ugandan families, the beginning of a school term brings both hope and financial pressure. Tuition fees often fall due before household income is available, putting children at risk of missing lessons or leaving school altogether. Since 2024, Furaha, a purpose-driven financing platform, has helped parents bridge that gap and keep 100,000 children in school.
The milestone comes against a backdrop of persistent barriers to education. A 2025 UNICEF report identifies financial constraints as the leading reason cited for both non-attendance and school dropout. Beyond tuition, families must also meet the cost of uniforms, scholastic materials and meals. An analysis of Ministry of Education and Sports data illustrates the scale of the challenge: of approximately 1.9 million children who entered Primary One in 2012, only about 142,000 from the same cohort went on to register for Senior Six examinations.
Furaha is addressing this challenge by enabling families to access affordable, short-term school fees financing. Incubated by SC Ventures, the company equips its partner banks, Diamond Trust Bank Uganda, Cairo Bank Uganda, Opportunity Bank and FINCA Uganda with an advanced lending platform and expertise spanning customer onboarding and KYC, alternative-data credit scoring, loan disbursement and collections. It is the first lending fintech in Africa to channel affordable financing from commercial banks towards the substantial need for education financing.
For Furaha CEO Dennis Musinguzi, the milestone reflects the determination of Ugandan parents to sustain their children’s education. “When we launched, our goal was simple: that no child in Uganda should be sent home because fees fell due before the money came in. Reaching 100,000 children has happened faster than we imagined, and this milestone belongs to Ugandan parents. Term after term, they have shown that when finance is built around how they earn, they meet their commitments. We are grateful to every parent, school and partner who has trusted us.”
Furaha’s growth has been driven by an expanding network of financial institutions, school fees payment aggregators and education-sector partners. After launching in Uganda with Opportunity Bank and SchoolPay, it added organisations including Cairo Bank Uganda, Diamond Trust Bank Uganda, SurePay and the National Private Education Institutions Association of Uganda (NPEIA-UG). Through this ecosystem, parents can now access school fees financing for more than 7,000 schools nationwide.
That combination of social purpose and commercial partnership is central to Furaha’s approach. “Furaha was founded on the belief that finance should serve a purpose, and there are few purposes more important than a child’s education,” said Sanjay Rughani, Board Chair of Furaha. “Reaching 100,000 children, together with the growing confidence of our partners, shows that this purpose can guide a model built to serve Ugandan families for the long term.”
The 100,000-child milestone is an important step towards Furaha’s wider ambition of helping 1 million children stay in school by 2028. The company plans to reach more schools across Uganda and bring additional partners onto the platform, extending a financing model designed around the realities of how families earn and pay.
Parents can apply for a school fees loan by dialling *165*80# or downloading the Furaha App from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
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