Sterling Bank Plc recently launched its back-to-school campaign aimed at providing succour for all stakeholders in the education sector as schools resume in September.
The primary targets for the campaign are primary and secondary schools (administrators, owners and teachers), while the secondary audience are all primary and secondary school students and their parents.
Areas covered under the campaign include school financing, asset finance, textbook and educational materials finance for schools; school fees finance for parents; coding and robotics summer boot camp for children; household equipment finance; and training for teachers, among others.
The Bank’s Group Head, Strategy and Finance, Mr. Shina Atilola, said the school fees financing solution was introduced to provide parents with instant financing for tuition and allow them put their children in school.
He explained that under the bank’s asset finance scheme, existing and new account holders will qualify for short-term financing against receivables while, “Sterling Bank can finance acquisition of buses, ICT infrastructure, interactive boards and other items the school may wish to purchase in the back-to-school season under the asset finance scheme.”
Atilola said schools in the books of the bank can access finance for a 90-day tenure at competitive rates compared to the industry benchmark. “This would be an incentive to school owners as surveys have shown that a large number of schools have challenges with payment of salaries and for renovation projects when school fees are not fully received.”
The bank’s strategist added that existing and prospective schools can also enjoy free deployment of its eduportal and payment gateway at no cost. He said the solution provides a platform to integrate the payment of school fees, levies and any other school-related payments. The platform also aids record-keeping and make for seamless day-to-day management of operations in schools.
While the bank offers schools a quick financing solution to purchase textbooks and learning materials from major publishing houses and bookshops such as Learn Africa Plc, Doroena Books and other designated outlets for the school year, he said schools that open salary accounts for their teachers this season will have their teachers qualify automatically for its personal financial management and other teacher training programmes (for both local and foreign courses)
“Under the household equipment finance, teachers with salary accounts will qualify for discounted acquisition of household items with flexible payment plans.
“New and existing ‘I Can Save’ customers who have opened and maintained a balance of N50,000 in their accounts for a minimum 30-day period qualify for freebies and are eligible to coding school summer boot camp and robotics training schools being organised by the bank during the holidays.”
