Uganda’s top institution, Makerere University has revised its vehicle parking fees, affecting all visitors to the ivory tower.
Makerere university, has in the past been charging only Shillings 1000 for each vehicles parked in the university irrespective of the time spent.
Now, under the revised fees, vehicle owners will part with Shillings 1000 for each hour spent in the university effective this academic year. To this effect, the university has upgraded its traffic control system and introduced an automated payment machines.
A notice issued by the management shows that a visitor will pay Shs.2000 in packing fees for a period between 2 to three hours, 3000 Shillings for four (4) to five (5) hours plus an additional Shilling 500 for each additional hour.
After payment, each vehicle is expected to exit the university within 30 minutes. In case of loss of a ticket, the university will impose a surcharge of Shillings 30, 000 for a single entry.
According to the notice, three Automatic Pay points/ Parking Payment Machines with a self-help menu have been introduced. The three machines are located at the college of education near the nursery school, another at pool road near the swimming pool opposite Dfcu Bank and another at Jica Building at the College of Natural Sciences.
The university management says the revised parking fees are expected to generate additional revenue for the university. Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, the Makerere University Deputy Vice Chancellor in Finance and Administration, says the move is aimed at helping the cash strapped institution to meet its obligations.
The 2017 financial year report by Makerere University Revenue Services Unit (MURSU) shows that KAPS vehicle Access, which collects the parking fees contributed Shillings 101.5 million of the overall Shillings 4.6 billion of the miscellaneous revenue.
The university contracted Kenya Airport Parking Services (KAPS) Limited, a private company to install the automated vehicle management system at the three gates. According to Prof. Nawangwe, the university is supposed to take 60 per cent of the money collected by KAPs every month.
He notes that the university desperately needs money to maintain its road network.
KAPs has been remitting Shillings 20 to million to the university each month since it started work in 2014. He notes that since the machines have now been fully automated to be able to charge hourly, the project is expected to make more money for the university.
Prof. Nawangwe says that the university had also wanted staff members and students to pay but the idea was dropped following numerous staff complaints. He says the system only applicable to visitors irrespective of whoever they are visiting.
