A wave of frustration is building among students of the University of Buea after the administration scrapped mobile-money fee payments in favour of banking-only transactions. What once was a fast, convenient method has now become a daily ordeal, with hundreds of students lining up at local banks for hours — sometimes days — just to pay their school fees.
In previous years, students could easily pay tuition via mobile money, making payments from anywhere at any time. This year, however, they must present themselves physically at a bank. The result: long, unforgiving queues. Many students have reported arriving early — as dawn breaks — because the bank can only process a limited number of payments each day. In one case, a student spent four full working days under the burning sun before finally paying.
As classes go on, students who have not completed payment are missing lectures, fearing the impact on their continuous assessments and exam performance. The deadline for fee payment is looming, yet the demand at the bank is growing, not shrinking.
But fee payment is not the only source of suffering. At the campus health centre, thousands of students are forced to queue for their routine medical examination. The lines stretch out, filled with weary students waiting for a chance to be seen. When their turn comes, they are handed a cup for a urine sample. But the conditions are deeply troubling: the restrooms are filthy and malodorous, yet students must use them before producing their sample. Many fear they may be exposed to illnesses simply by complying with the medical requirement.
The agony continues once they leave the health centre: students must then queue again at their faculty office, showing proof of payment, and later in their department offices, where they present all their registration documents. These long, repetitive lines delay everything.
This maze of procedures is not just time-consuming—it’s costly. Many students report losing money on transport, food, and accommodation during repeated trips. Some never even complete the process. Others say they have been preyed upon by “predators” — people who exploit their desperation to offer help, only to demand payment, bribes, or favours.
The burden on students has revealed a serious weakness in the University of Buea’s admission and registration system. There is a real, urgent need for reform. The process must be overhauled and modernised. Digital solutions should be reintroduced and strengthened, so students no longer have to sacrifice their time, health, and dignity just to enrol.
Without change, the system continues to punish those it is supposed to serve.
By Lucas Muma
