Oyindamola Olofinlua

National Open University

Background

Offering a functional, cost-effective and flexible learning platform, the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is Nigeria’s leading and only specialist provider of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) at tertiary level, the first of its kind in the West African sub-region.  With over 50 certificate, diploma and degree programmes, 750 courses, and 63 study centres spread across Nigeria, NOUN’s student population has risen to over 120,000, making it Nigeria’s largest tertiary institution – in terms of student numbers.

Among many achievements, the university received the 2011 European Quality Award in Education at Oxford, United Kingdom, and was recently ranked by Webometric International as 7th in Nigeria and amongst the top 100 universities in Africa.

The Challenge

To consistently achieve its statutory responsibility of delivering top-class education, the institution’s Governing Council had commissioned a student portal, three different web-based card payment providers and a commercial bank to collect funds on its behalf.

Although this process had been in place for some time, it had the following challenges:

Payment Channels Limitations: Students could ONLY make payments at bank branches during working hours on weekdays and via NOUN’s online portal. Hence, they experienced constraints due to the unavailability of banks for about 120 days of the year (including Weekends and Public Holidays) and on occasions when the portal experienced downtime. Also, the institution’s previous payment gatewaysdid not support payments at microfinance banks, which can sometimes be the only financial institution in some localities.

Payment Monitoring and Verification: As a result of the university’s arrangements with multiple payment technology providers, payment monitoring was cumbersome and inefficient, particularly it was done manually. Consequently, this reduced the university’s ability to confirm payments and deliver efficient services to students.

Payment Mode: Payments to the university were largely transacted at bank branches and consequently by cash. This, in no small way, exposed students to significant risks of cash loss and theft. Had there been cashless payment options, many of the students would opted for it.

Report Generation: NOUN’s multiple but disjointed channels of fund collection reduced its capacity to easily ascertain revenues collected along different revenue heads, let alone converging reports of funds collected through various payment channels. Hence, reports and analyses from the three card payment service providers had to be manually matched against paper bank statements.

Reconciliation: As a result of the foregoing, it was inevitable for staff of the account department of the university to endure a tedious and time-consuming process of matching revenues received and receipts issued via several payment channels. This was unsustainable if the staff were to perform maximally.

The TSA Solutions and Benefits

The Management of National Open University of Nigeria, therefore, seized the opportunity of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) mandate of the federal government to consolidate its revenue management processes by deploying a streamlined payment and collection platform offered by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s payment gateway, Remita.

The institution has now been able to address the aforementioned challenges conclusively, and some of the improvement areas include:

Extended, Convergent Payment Channels: Students can now make payments via more channels, including ANY branch of All Commercial Banks in Nigeria, Microfinance Banks, Online Banking, Debit/Credit Card, Designated POS Terminals, Mobile Wallet, Registered Agents, Institution’s Integrated Portal, and the Remita Portal – all provided under one platform. The convenience of use and support this affords students is already impacting positively on the institution’s revenue collection.

Unrestricted Service Availability: Students are now able to pay the university from anywhere, at anytime without the restrictions associated with bank closures or holiday breaks. This has exponentially increased the convenience of making payments to the university and reduced delays in revenue collections due to payment constraints.

Consolidated Reporting for all Transactions: The institution now easily generates detailed and accurate reports at the click of button along various revenue heads, irrespective of the payment channel used, without relying on bank statements. This has drastically reduced the time the institution spends on verifying payments.

Compliance with TSA: By implementing the Treasury Single Account initiative of the Federal Government, NOUN has been able to fully align itself with the September 15 2015 presidential directive,driven by accountability and transparency. As a result, the institution also has full control of its finance while deepening Government’s progressive agenda.

Automated Transaction Monitoring: The university has greater control of all its cash assets, and authorised employees of the finance team can readily monitor all transactions in details, online and in real-time. Through Remita Retrieval Reference (RRR), all transactions are receipted and individually tracked from initiation to consummation, regardless of the payment mode. Staff are therefore empowered to manage the institution’s finances with improved efficiency while the university now has greater insight for making smarter and faster decisions.

Reconciliation: No longer does the university’s finance team have tough times reconciling its various bank accounts. With access to all transactions via one single consolidated view, the university now enjoys the ease of account reconciliation like never before, thus boosting efficiency!

The Results: Control | Efficiency | Ease

“While ensuring that we are able to fully dispense all our financial operations from the Treasury Single Account, Remita has strongly placed the management of our finance in our hands. It is now more convenient for students to make payments, and the university also has timely access to all financial transactions.”

– Mr. Odeigah Ernest, FCNA, Ag. Bursar, National Open University of Nigeria

The National Open University of Nigeria has continued to set the pace in corporate governance for other higher institutions in Nigeria while also operating easy and efficient financial processes that ensure the smooth execution of its mandate of offering world-class education to all willing to embrace it.

About TSA

Treasury Single Account (TSA) is a unified structure of government bank accounts that gives a consolidated view of cash position resulting in overall effective cash management.  

About Remita

Remita is a secure, efficient and cost-effective platform for receiving and making payments easily. Remita is developed by SystemSpecs, a wholly Nigerian finance and human management software house, and meets the needs of individuals, organisations and governments. Remita is the CBN’s adopted payment gateway for Treasury Single Account TSA Collections and Payment platform.

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