KCB partners with local university to ease admission of students

KENYA: University of Nairobi (UoN) has entered into partnership with a bank to ease the admission of self-sponsored students.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) will offer automated payment collection services, following the official launch of an online application portal, which marks the computerisation of the admission process for privately sponsored students.

KCB Managing Director Sam Makome told The Standard yesterday that the new partnership is in line with the financial institution's goal of offering tailor-made solutions to its clients.

"We shall constantly remain innovative in offering tailor-made solutions and in pursuing sustainable partnerships with like-minded institutions such as University of Nairobi. We will continue rolling out services that will meet the changing customer needs," he said.

Mr Makome explained that the financial institution has integrated its payment collection system with the university such that real time communication will happen whenever students make payments.

Diverse clientele

"This system is the first of its kind in the country. It will assist the university in decision-making on various parameters concerning application and admission information," he said.

"For us, such partnerships are meant to make financial services more accessible easing the lives of our diverse clientele," said Makome, who added that the bank intends to leverage on advancements in technology to grow profits in 2016.

Julius Ogen'go, the director of the Centre for Self-Sponsored Programmes at UoN, said that the delay in processing and disbursement of admission letters to successful applicants will now be a thing of the past.

Prof Ogen'go noted that since the introduction of self-sponsored programmes in the late 1990s, students have been compelled to use a manual application system which is time consuming, considering the high volume of applications.

"Upon receipt of application forms, the university engaged its staff in a tedious and time-consuming exercise of data entry at the admissions and Board of Postgraduate Studies offices before the letters were mailed by post to successful applicants. This was a slow and very costly process," he added.