What KYS means for a school account

Before your school can send or receive money on KiddyCash, it needs to go through a process called KYS — Know Your School. This article explains what that means, why it matters, and what you need to do to complete it.

Why verification exists

KiddyCash moves real money — school fees, subscription payments, and allowance top-ups flow between families, schools, and wallets every day. In Kenya and across the region, financial regulators require that any platform handling these flows confirms the identity of every institution involved. Think of it the same way a bank asks for your documents before opening a business account.

Without completing KYS, your school account is created but limited. You can explore the dashboard, but you cannot collect payments, disburse funds, or appear as a verified institution to parents on the platform.

KYS vs KYC: KYS applies to schools and institutions. KYC (Know Your Customer) applies to individual users — parents, guardians, and staff. You can read more about how individual verification works in what KYC means in KiddyCash.

What KYS actually checks

When you submit your school for verification, KiddyCash reviews three things:

  1. Institution identity — Is this a real, registered school? This typically means providing a certificate of registration or a letter from the relevant education authority.
  2. Authorized representative — Who is allowed to manage the school’s finances on KiddyCash? This person’s identity is verified individually as part of the process.
  3. Banking or mobile money details — Where should funds go? In practice, many schools in Nairobi and other urban centres use a till number or Paybill linked to M-Pesa, while others provide a KES bank account. Both are accepted.

KiddyCash cross-references these details before activating your school’s full financial flow.

What changes after verification

Once your school is verified, you unlock the complete KiddyCash experience:

  • Collect school fees and subscriptions directly from parent wallets
  • Appear as a trusted institution on parent and family dashboards
  • Issue transaction codes for specific payment purposes
  • Run campaigns targeted at your school community
  • Access full payout history and reconciliation tools

Unverified schools see a banner at the top of their dashboard. Verified schools see a blue badge next to their school name.

How to start your KYS submission

You can begin the process directly from your school’s verification page:

👉 Go to your KYS submission page — replace :school_id with your actual school ID, which appears in your dashboard URL.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of uploading documents and submitting your profile, see how to submit KYC from your profile. The steps for schools follow the same flow.

How long does it take?

Most schools are verified within 1–3 business days after submitting complete documents. If your submission is incomplete, you will receive a notification explaining what is missing. You can resubmit without starting over.

Stay up to date

The verification process has been improved recently. To see what has changed and what new document types are now accepted, read what’s new in verification in KiddyCash. For a deeper explanation of how the full verification system works across the platform, a closer look at verification in KiddyCash is a good place to start.