Selling garden produce to pay fees

AMONG the many with future ambitions who have left school due to financial limitations is Gwaibo Nina, who is committed to selling garden produce to pay for his fees.
Nina, after completing Grade 12 last year from Kwikila Secondary School, was accepted by International Training Institute (ITI) in Port Moresby to take up an accounting course.
Nina’s parents, although being supportive, were not able to help him financially.
Nina and his three cousins, who were also in need of financial help, were able to sell 143 bags of garden produce with support from families and villagers.
The amount raised totalled K14,300 which they distributed among themselves.
Nina received K2,000 which he used to pay for his first semester.
Apart from doing his own fundraising, Nina had become a participant with the Kumul Genius platform where he had been seeking financial help from the public.
This was done through a social media page he had recently created.
His ambition for become an accountant had driven him to go far and beyond.
The Kumul Genius is a technology platform enabling parents of children in Port Moresby to pay school fees over the counter at any Stop and Shop or City Pharmacy outlet. Software designer Jaive Smare in a recent report stated that the system was designed in such a way that all affiliated schools would have their students’ names registered in the system.
He said the system agency was “very similar to that of mobile phone top-ups or EsiPay services”, had an agency agreement with CPL to develop its payment systems and indemnity documents.
Smare further stated: “The school will have a dashboard to monitor all payments received on the system and have settlements done daily.
“When a student file is uploaded, the student would also receive a SOA number, which would be used to make payments at any outlet.”