PressPayNg has reached over 60,000 Nigerian students and parents in its drive to offer solutions to financing tertiary education in the country. The company was launched just about 9 months agoof launch.
The company’s milestones were announced by Ebuka Nwokoro Team Lead, Technology Implementation – PressPayNg at a Media briefing in Abuja.
Driven by the passion to solve a critical social problem that comes particularly with the difficulty in financing tertiary education in Nigeria, Coverpage Partnership Solutions Limited, in November 2021 developed a social enterprise EdTech product – PressPayNg.
The app provides soft loans, mainly funded directly by FCBN at the moment, as a co-funding arrangement for tuition payment, as well as other support services to Nigerian students in tertiary institutions.
The Soft loan is a short-term tuition loan aimed at facilitating the prompt payment of tuition fees per academic calendar.
PressPayNg’s vision which is to empower the educational ambition of every Nigerian was buoyed by the fact that education, particularly at the tertiary level is still a distant dream for so many Nigerian youths.
Nwokoro explained that the product is a Silverbullet solution that will significantly flatten the curve of tertiary education drop-out rate in Nigeria, increase the annual enrolment rate of tertiary institutions, help the institutions generate more revenue, address infrastructural deficits and ultimately advance the human capital development index in the country.
“With PressPayNg, every Nigerian student will be financially empowered to commence and complete tertiary education without having to drop- out or defer admission,” he noted.
“As a brand, and the foremost Tertiary Education Financing Technology in Africa, our commitment to education runs deep as evident in the milestone we are celebrating today.”
Speaking on a few milestones, Nwokoro explained that the company has made strides in four key areas including offering tertiary education scholarships and tuition donations to several students across the geo political zones in the country.
Read also: FCMB, PressPayNg unveil tertiary education support platform
It has also created a platform where Nigerian Students Crowdfund their education by generating a unique link they share with their community of friends, families, celebrities, donors, philanthropists and diasporans to enable them curate funding support in a credible, transparent, and seamless manner.
Also in partnership with FCMB, students and parents are able to open education savings account directly on the PressPayNg App where they save towards the payment of school fees in a flexible manner with several benefits.
Above all, the company is offering easily accessible single-digit Tertiary Education loans to Parents.
“This is a co-funding arrangement where we give up to 50% collateral-free short-term loan when they have a need for that quick fix, school fees payment solution. This is a collateral-free and single-digit interest loan that is not obtainable in any commercial bank,” Nwokoro further noted.
He however acknowledged that there is so much to be done considering the huge gap and challenges in the country’s education system.
“As a brand, we are ready to work with the government at all levels, we are ready to work with the tertiary institutions across the country, stakeholders in the education sectors, corporate organizations, individual donors and development agencies who are willing to support these students with scholarship, tuition donations, HMO interventions, Education Insurance, soft skill training, holiday jobs and much more.”
The commitment to collaborate with other stakeholders, he noted is because education is the most cost-effective way to drive economic development, and improve skills and opportunities for Nigerian youths.
“PressPayNg is ready to partner with every Nigerian parent and student in making tertiary education accessible, affordable and attainable.
“With FCMB, we are targeting 1.5 million students in 2-3 years; with other partners like Cornerstone Insurance, Jobberman, Sunu Health, Mutual Benefit and Metro Health,” he stressed.
Also speaking at the event, Ibukun Ola, Strategist, PressPayNg noted that strategies have been put in place to check potential fraud in the company’s processes by ensuring that the applicants are thoroughly verified against their claims and that the loans are paid directly to their schools, thereby eliminating third parties.
According to her, PressPayNg’s offering includes Tuition Loans,
Scholarship Pop-ups, Savings Plans,
Education Grants, Employment Opportunities, Education Insurance,
International Placements, Bills Payment & Transfers, Income Opportunities, Emergency Education Funding, Access to State Bursary as well as Education Health Maintenance.
She also clarified that in terms of the tuition loans, PressPayNg provides collateral-free, 50 percent of the cost on behalf of beneficiaries, who will then be required to make up the balance.
