STUDENTS attending the University of Guyana (UG) can now pay their tuition fees from the comfort of their homes using Mobile Money now that an agreement is in place.
The agreement, in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), was signed on Friday between the university’s administration and Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT). Mobile Money Guyana Incorporated (MMG) is a product of GTT.
MMG was launched by GTT in 2012 to afford customers the opportunity to purchase mobile credits, pay utility and other bills, receive loan disbursements and make loan repayments, send and receive money locally, make deposits and withdrawals.
Minutes before signing the MoU at the Vice Chancellor’s Turkeyen Office, GTT Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Justin Nedd, said the university students will join the more than 20, 000 people already utilising MMG’s services through the Mobile Money app.
He posited that the mobile money platform will allow students to pay their university fees.
“With mobile money you are now able to pay your application processing fee, the dormitory fee, your general dues, graduation fees, registration fees, summer registration fees, and the transcript,” Nedd explained.

According to him, Mobile Money is a much easier and more convenient way of doing business. “Everybody that uses the services suddenly can’t do without it and wonder why they weren’t using it all along,” he posited.
Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith, who signed on behalf of the University of Guyana, said critical steps are being taken to enhance the services being provided to the more than 8,600 students on campus.
Approximately 60 per cent of the student population makes cash payment.
“This is a milestone of enhancing the delivery of quality services, better services to our students. It is also a milestone and an opportunity for us to enhance our partnership with GTT,” Vice Chancellor Griffith stated.
With more international students signing up to attend the university, the Vice Chancellor believes that mobile money service is being offered at a critical time. Over the last academic year, international students came from a total of 33 countries, and the numbers are expected to increase.

Additionally, he said there is a “convenience factor”.
“The convenience factor also has a secondary benefit of a financial savings factor,” Professor Griffith posited while explaining that students will no longer have to travel long distances at their expense to pay the required fees.
“One of the things that will be captured in the agreement is the opportunity for the partnership between GTT and the university to have other tangible elements to it, and part of what we are looking for the partnership to allow us to do, is to enable GTT to give to the university and its students additional benefits,” he explained.
For him, it is a “win-win” situation.
UG’s Registrar, Dr. Nigel Gravesande said the mobile money service will reduce the large sums cash within the system – a system that has its own challenges.
“So we have to move to being a modern society and a modern institution and lesser reliance on cash as a monetary instrument for the payment of goods and services. And that is one of the areas,” Dr. Gravesande said.

Once the app is installed, customers can simply get registered and deposit monies into their account at any of the more than 140 GTT agents across the country. It was noted too that once the app is installed on a phone, the service can be accessed any part of the world as long there is Internet access.
In keeping with the strict guidelines established by the Bank of Guyana, a ceiling has been put in place. Payments can be made from a minimum of $500 to a maximum of $60, 000 per transaction. However, the maximum amount per day is set at $100, 000.
Representatives from the University and GTT were also present at the signing ceremony.