RWANDA
Rwanda moves swiftly towards cashless society
Rwanda is continuing with its move to be the first cashless society in Africa , extending an agreement with Mastercard to strength its digital payment sector , it was announced at the World Economic Forum being held in Durban , South Africa , this week .
Government of Rwanda and Mastercard have reaffirmed their shared commitment to the development of strong digital platforms to meet the needs of the country ' s citizens and work towards Rwanda ' s goal of promoting a cashless society .
According to FinScope 2016 , 68 % of adults in Rwanda have / use formal financial products / services . The partnership agreement signed between MasterCard and the Rwanda Development Board at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Kigali in 2016 will have a significant impact on this number . Through the partnership , great momentum has been achieved , resulting in the agreement with Mastercard being renewed to incorporate the digitization of Rwanda social subsides under one inflows and outflows digitization project .
" Named SIKASHI , the project is focused on digitising numerous state services to improve the efficiency and transparency of public services and ultimately promote the move to a cashless society - a critical pillar of Rwanda ' s broader Vision 2020 to create a knowledge-based economy in a world beyond cash ," says Clare Akamanzi , CEO of Rwanda Development Board and Cabinet Member .
Key focus areas of SIKASHI include school fees payment digitisation , providing an online payment gateway services for RwandaOnline , contributing to the creation of an interoperable mobile banking platform , addressing the national healthcare claims disbursement and payment processes , and contributing to the effective management of foreign exchange process flow .
" In the last year , the Rwandan government and Mastercard have leveraged each other ' s strengths to deliver on a number of these goals , particularly in the payments , disbursements and subsidies of health , pensions and education : centralized and digital platforms for the three areas have been built and tested and will be rolled out for the widespread benefit of our citizens ," says Daniel Monehin , Division President for Sub-Saharan Africa and International Markets Lead for Financial Inclusion , Mastercard .
This covers a centralised digital platform to drive efficiency , access to and payments of the annual subscription fee of the communal healthcare system " Mutuelle de Santé ", of the mandatory pension scheme targeting workers and those in the informal sector , of school fees for all primary and secondary public schools , as well as a digital ecosystem for all the government ' s social inflows and outflows , with emphasis on the Vision 2020 Umurenge Program for poverty eradication , the Genocide Survivors disbursement , and agriculture subsidies programmes .
The healthcare and pension programmes conceptualised as part of SIKASHI pilot will be the first to be rolled out to the country ' s citizens and is set to begin this year . This will be followed by the introduction of the Long Term Savings Scheme project , which Mastercard and social enterprise firm Pinbox Solutions partnered to provide technical assistance for Rwanda ' s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning . The scheme will be demonstrated at the first global micropension inclusion summit in Rwanda in July .
Online payment gateway and mobile payments have been a key contributor to making government services more accessible to the country ' s citizens through the RwandaOnline service named Irembo . Irembo is the face of all current and future solutions and provides a one-stop- shop for the Rwandan government and the country ' s citizens to seamlessly apply and pay for Government Services
Irembo provides 50 e-services from ten + government agencies to citizens and allows them to pay using debit , credit or prepaid cards and mobile money services . Building on the success of Irembo so far , Mastercard and RwandaOnline have strengthened their relationship through the signing of a two-year Strategic Partnership Agreement to innovate around all citizen-to- government ( C2G ) and business-to- government ( B2G ) payments .
" Rwanda is a vital market in East Africa and the snowballing positive impact of the solutions implemented through SIKASHI have illustrated the power of ground-breaking digital systems and collaboration between government and the private sector to drive the financial inclusion of all citizens ," concludes Monehin .
2017 | Business Times Africa 49