Makerere University Bursar Augustine Tamale has announced that the Living Out Allowances (LOA) for government sponsored students will be paid between Thursday and Friday this week.

Tamale was responding to allegations that the university had used the funds to pay incentives for lecturers who were on strike.

 “Government changed the financial management system… When we collect money, we send it to consolidated funds, and we spend using the government software called the Integrated Financial management system (IFMS). So you pay from Bank Of Uganda,” Tamale said.

 He added that because students don’t have accounts connected to IFMS, they opted for mobile money system of payment which was rejected and the university was forced to revert to the system of bank accounts.

“So because of that, we had to stop the transaction, and transfer the money to commercial bank accounts, and pay them off. The transaction was done on Thursday last week; it takes for working days to clear between bank of Uganda and the university.

 “So expect the money to arrive today or tomorrow on our accounts [university bank accounts] and once it arrives, we shall pay students via Stanbic. It will take 30 minutes for those in stanbic to see the money on their accounts and those in other banks, it will take them between one and two days. By the weekend, all of them will have got money,” Tamale concluded.

On Monday, the over 2000 government sponsored students at Makerere had planned to strike over these allowances. However, the Dean of Students Cyriaco Kabagambe promised that the money would be paid on that very day, a promise that was never fulfilled.

Contrary to other semesters, this time these funds meant to cater for meals and accommodations have delayed for two weeks, leaving students stranded and others complaining of being thrown out of rental houses where they stay.