Rwandans seeking to take driving tests, effective Monday next week, register online at no cost.

The development was announced yesterday by the spokesperson for Rwanda National Police traffic and road safety department, Superintendent Jean Marie Vianey Ndushabandi, during a one-day training of driving school directors on the candidate registration system.

The training, organised by Rwanda Online Platform, a government initiative that avails public services online, sought to acquaint directors of driving schools with the process.

The platform, dubbed ‘Irembo’, has provisions for citizens to fill in and submit application forms for the service needed.

Over 53 driving school owners and directors from across the country attended the trainingJean Paul Habumugisha, the director of APAFORME Driving School operating in Kigali and Western Province, said the new platform will help them minimise losses they were incurring through mobile phone registration.

He said, "For every candidate we receive, we were supposed to register them by use of mobile phone. For one candidate, we were supposed to pay Rwf65 that is deducted from your airtime balance, regardless of the success or failure of operation which has always led to losses.”

"But now, with the new system, we will be able to register our candidates for free, which I hope will improve our service delivery.”

Sylvere Kubwineza, the project manager for Traffic Police at Rwanda Online, said the project will ease public service delivery.

He said the portal automatically reminds the service providers about the duration the service takes.

"For example, if you apply for a certificate that is expected to take 15 days at the sector level, the sector will be alerted about the application. When it goes beyond the 15 days, an alert will immediately be sent to the district level and other higher organs. This will enable public servants to get accustomed to delivering on time,” Kubwineza explained.

Superintendent Ndushabandi said online registration will be affordable for candidates.

"Irembo will deploy agents who will register candidates online free of charge. Even those who will continue using SMS registration will not be charged,” Ndushabandi said.

Currently, five services are available online namely; application for birth certificate, registration for provisional or definitive and supplementary driving license tests, application for a criminal record and tax declaration.

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