Have you had the sorry tragedy of losing your school fees and getting eternally grilled for it?

In modern times, back-to-school days are less stressful for the parent. In the days of yore, parents would have lots of choices to make on such days. Do they have to skip work to accompany their kids to school, specifically to pay school fees? Can I trust my wayward son whose seemingly sole ambition in life is ‘to be cool?’

It was akin to playing poker, and the roll of the dice sometimes came short.

A traumatising episode in my early high school days still haunts me. I was blessed with noble parents, but I doubt they’ve let it go, to this date. Take a seat, grab some popcorn.

Oh, this story involves your favorite salad fruit, the avocado. Did you know Mexican recipes refer to the avocado as the ‘guacamole’?

On the material day, it was decided that I would be reporting back to school unaccompanied. None of my parents or elder sibling had a day to spare. I was a strapping lad of 15, with a brimming cauldron of teenage hormones. I was glad my folks had finally given me an ‘adult-stamp’, despite a turbulent few weeks of holiday.

I received the crumpled bundle of notes from my dad, with the solemnity of Biblical Moses receiving The Ten Commandments. Then, my pocket money in an assortment of coins neatly tied up in an old handkerchief. My dad then said it was my second term’s fees in full. It was a little over five thousand, but I broke out in a hot sweat. It had the weight of the national treasury.

At the time, I was also a budding entrepreneur in school. On opening days, I would pick a pack of fresh avocado from home to hawk off to my classmates. I had to boost my pocket money. I had a dilemma: where do I hide my treasury? The bag didn’t seem a good idea – in those days, brats from neighbouring schools would often mug their counterparts for the-hell-of-it.

I chose to hide my school fees in my socks.

At the bus terminus, there is the usual shoving and pushing for the few matatu available. In the midst of it, my school bag had the misfortune of bursting at the seams. I hadn’t factored in the weight of my avocado stock. It also didn’t help, that the terminus has a gentle slope. My guacamole salad started rolling down the hill on the tarmac.

It was mighty embarrassing sprinting after avocados, in my school uniform. In the melee, my Cash-In-Transit socks lost their elasticity, and dropped their cargo. I tasted Murphy’s Law before they taught me about it. To date, my folks haven’t believed I lost my school fees chasing avocados down the hill.

No need for that nowadays, with PesaLink. All Coop Bank customers with MCoopCash app, for instance, are already registered to PesaLink. This allows any parent to easily and safely pay school fees to multiple schools from the convenience of their homes. Coop Bank customers can access PesaLink by dialling *667# on their phones, or via MCoopCash app.

Even Non-Coop Bank customers can still send money instantly to a Coop Bank account via PesaLink. All they need is the details of the school’s Coop Bank account, and pay school fees directly.

Discerning business people use PesaLink to conveniently pay their suppliers instantly into their bank accounts, at very affordable rates. For other personal business transactions, Coop bank customers can send money instantly to any local account at very friendly rates – like, Ksh.10 up to Ksh.200,000 at an extremely low cost between Ksh.0 to Ksh.152 – depending on the amount due for transfer.