Events Opportunity EduFinance Webinar - Getting More Children Access to Quality Education: Digital Innovation in School Fee Lending
Access to quality education remains a critical challenge for millions of families across the globe, where school fees often pose a significant barrier to enrollment and retention. Despite growing demand, many parents struggle to afford consistent tuition payments, especially in underserved communities. Financial institutions have a unique opportunity to address this gap, yet many have not yet explored the potential of school fee lending as a sustainable, impactful service.
Opportunity International EduFinance is convening a dynamic, cross-regional webinar “Getting More Children Access to Quality Education: Digital Innovation in School Fee Lending” to spotlight practical, scalable solutions that are helping families overcome these barriers. This 90-minute session is designed especially for financial institutions that are not yet offering school fee lending, to demonstrate the benefits, feasibility, and social impact of entering this space.
This webinar will spotlight practical, scalable solutions that are helping families overcome financial barriers to education. Designed especially for financial institutions looking to launch or scale school fee lending, this session will highlight the benefits, feasibility, and social impact of expanding access to education through digitally innovative financing
Through panel presentations and moderated discussion, participants will gain insights into:
- The evolving role of financial institutions in expanding education access
- Digital innovations driving more inclusive school fee lending and payment solutions
- Cross-regional strategies and shared learning to align approaches and build sustainable impact
Date and Time: Monday, September 22nd, 2025, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm GMT
Meet our Panellists:
- Abreham Tilahun, CEO, Kacha Digital Financial Service S.C., Ethiopia
Abreham Abera is a prominent banker and visionary leader with more than 20 years of experience in both traditional and digital banking. His career started with a robust foundation in conventional banking, but his enthusiasm for innovation drove him to lead the creation of digital banking services. For nearly a decade, Abreham has overseen transformative initiatives in mobile money, mobile banking, card banking, and internet banking, managing these projects from their inception to successful scaling.
Throughout his career, Abreham has held various roles within the Ethiopian banking industry, culminating in his position as Vice President of Retail Banking at Lion International Bank S.C. He has played a crucial role in fostering the Bank’s growth and innovation, notably by leading numerous critical business process reengineering projects and developing digital strategies to meet the evolving challenges of the banking sector. Additionally, he is actively involved in policy and directive formulation efforts organized by the Central Bank of Ethiopia and the Bankers’ Association of Ethiopia.
Driven by a deep passion for digitizing banking services, Abreham has made a significant impact in the Fintech landscape. He is the co-founder and founding CEO of Kacha Digital Financial Service S.C., Ethiopia's pioneering private mobile money service provider. Under his guidance, Kacha has made remarkable strides in forging new partnerships between Fintech, financial institutions, and globally recognized payment companies, thereby transforming banking services to enhance financial access for underserved and unserved communities.
- Joseph Kiiza, Co-founder and Chief Executive Board Member, SchoolPay
Joseph is an innovative entrepreneur and business practitioner with over 20 years of deep practical industry experience in Financial Technology, Insurance Technology, Banking & Financial services, Eco system building and Mobile related payments.
He is a Co- founder of Service Cops Ltd (a leading Fintech and Business Processes Outsourcing company) where he serves as the Group Executive Chairman responsible for Business Development, strategy, innovations and global expansion. Service Cops serves over 35 Banks and Five Telecoms in Africa for whom it has developed several Technology based platforms ranging from middle ware platforms, Enterprise Service Bus solutions, API management platforms, Agency & Merchant Banking platforms and other bespoke solutions used to serve their clientele. Service Cops has ground operations in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique and Mauritius serving over 25M users across its platforms on a monthly and still growing.
Service Cops fully owns Fincom Technologies, a subsidiary that houses School Pay, an education value chain platform that has revolutionalised payments and management of the education eco system across Africa serving over 12M students and 35K+ educational institutions.
Joseph also provides leadership as Board chair in a number of entities that he has co-founded such as NEON INC (Insuretech), Edge Micro Insurance Ltd, Nepserv Consults Ltd, which provide cutting edge technology solutions in the ecosystems where they operate in their respective markets.
His formative years were in Banking and Financial Services where he served at dfcu Bank, Stanbic Bank and East African Development Bank.
- Amos Bonna, Chief Relationship Officer, Opportunity Bank Uganda Limited
Amos is responsible for driving the business growth, development and digital transformation at Opportunity Bank Uganda Limited. . Amos’ career spans over 20 years, during which he has held several senior management roles in Credit management, Business development, Marketing and Sales in both the micro and commercial banking. With a speciality in business growth & credit risk management of short-term, medium and long-term facilities in micro and commercial banking, Amos is passionate about serving smallholder farmers, especially in the rural areas.
A holder of a master’s degree in business administration (Finance) and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management, tenable at Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi, Uganda. An alumnus of the Executive Development Program under Opportunity International; fellow of the Board Leadership for Impact program; an alumnus of Digital Frontiers Institute and an alumnus of Agricultural and Rural Finance (FAR2023).
Amos oversees strategic planning, business performance evaluation, customer relationship enhancement, portfolio diversification, and resilience research. He provides critical insights and guidance to senior leadership and the board, helping the bank minimize risk and maximize value across its branches, segments, and products.
Ankit Mehra, Co-founder and CEO, GyanDhan
Ankit Mehra is the Co-founder and CEO of GyanDhan, India’s first education financing marketplace, launched in 2015 to democratize access to higher education. Through GyanDhan, he has pioneered data-driven lending solutions that have enabled thousands of students to pursue quality education in India and abroad without being held back by financial constraints.
Ankit holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from IESE Business School, Barcelona (2013–2015), and a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. His career spans over a decade in global finance and strategy, with diverse roles at Capital One in the U.S. and India, and at Credit Suisse in London. At Capital One, he advanced from Business Analyst to Senior Business Analyst, where he spearheaded risk management strategies, customer retention programs, and new product evaluations in the small business lending portfolio. At Credit Suisse, he worked as an Investment Banking Summer Associate, preparing analyst and investor presentations for the planned IPO of a UK bank valued at GBP 1 billion.
Beyond his professional work, Ankit is deeply passionate about economics and politics. In his free time, he enjoys playing football and basketball, as well as exploring trading and investment opportunities.
You're invited to join our webinar! We welcome financial institutions, funders, investors, and other stakeholders interested in education financing and digital payments to join this timely conversation and help shape a more inclusive, digitally enabled future for education financing, starting with the institutions best positioned to lead the way.
We look forward to your participation and to building a future where opportunities in education are not limited by financial barriers, but expanded through collaboration, innovation, and shared commitment.
NB: Spanish and French interpretation will be available