Four students from Kigali Integrated College (KIC) have developed an application dubbed "Electronic Claims Management System” that will help eliminate scammers or corrupted individuals who deliberately hike repairing cost for damaged vehicles and lead insurance companies into losses.
The students include Honorine Uwase, Blaise Irakoze, Amani Mugiraneza and Denise Uwizeye.
The final students, who will graduate at the end of this year, are studying ICT.
They started to develop the system in the beginning of 2018 according to Honorine Uwase, one of the developers.
Irakoze Blaise and Honorine Uwase make part of the team of students who have developed "Electronic Claims Management System.Courtesy
She said users that include insurance companies, garages, vehicle owners, traffic police, and spare parts retailers can create their accounts by accessing www.umuhuza.rw.
She said that the idea was inspired by how insurance companies registered about Rwf6 billion in 2017 owing to fraudulent practices among some stakeholders in the motor insurance sector.
"They pay excessive and unnecessary cost to repair the damaged vehicles due to the agents and vehicle owners who trick the companies,” she said.
The ‘corrupted vehicle owners and companies agents’ negotiate with garages owners to fraudulently hike the repairing prices.
Local insurance companies also counted Rwf 8.3 billion loss in 2013, Rwf 12.2 billion in 2014, Rwf 12.5 billion in 2015 and Rwf 13.4 billion in 2016.
"Insurance companies have agents who help them file insurance claims for damaged vehicles but they negotiate with garages to hike the cost for repairing and then companies end up counting losses. For instance, if a damaged part was to be repaired at a cost of Rwf500, 000, some inflate the costs to Rwf1 million which is not fair,” she said.
The Electronic Claims Management System” that will eliminate scammers or corrupted individuals who deliberately hike repairing cost for damaged vehicles and lead insurance companies into losses.Courtesy
The developed system will now allow vehicle owners and police to take pictures and video of the damaged vehicles at the scene of an accident and upload them into the system so that garages bid for repairing the vehicles at fair prices, she said.
"This will ensure that the damaged parts are clear and visible so that garages bid for repairing them. The system will include insurance companies, vehicle owners and garages in the platform to ensure transparency so that the insurance companies directly engage garages in bidding for the repairing job,” she said.
"This means that there will be no more way of hiking the repairing cost since negotiating agents- who used to fraud- will be eliminated from negotiating prices with garages since the actual prices will be evident through bidding,” she added.
Honorine Uwase make part of the team of students who have developed "Electronic Claims Management System.Courtesy
A police report of accidents will also be available on the system to enable insurers allocate appropriate money for repairing.
"Vehicle owners will easily access garages and garages for repairing jobs and thus save time, she added
She said spare parts retailers will also be included in the system so that prices of needed spare parts are easily verified by insurance companies to cope with hiking.
She added that the garages will no longer evade revenues they owe to the government since the online bidding process will track tasks handled and amounts paid.
Uwase said that the system will also enable graduates from Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centres (IPRCs) to also bid for repairing the damaged vehicles by accessing the online platform.
"We are also going to insert in another programme that will enable vehicle owners to pay insurance premiums online to enable them make payments using mobile phones,” she said.