Telecom operator to invest Rwf900 million in the service

As the country strives to increase the number of bank users, Rwandatel is now set to unveil its ‘Mobile Money’ service, partnering with the Bank of Kigali (BK) as the receiving bank.

The ‘mobile money’ service enables one to make a financial transaction using a mobile phone or any mobile device with SIM card technology.

During an exclusive interview with the Business Times, Rwandatel’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Francis Egbuson revealed that Rwandatel is finalising paper documents with the regulator, the National Bank of Rwanda (NBR).

"We are planning to launch the service in the fourth quarter (Q4) of the year and we are very confident the service will be a success as we are taking lessons from our sister company, Uganda Telecom (UTL),” Egbuson said.

The operator will invest Rwf900 million in developing the service and the officials say that the service will be much easier to use and they believe it will attract a wide range of clients.

Libya African Investments Portfolio (LAP), the investment arm of the Libyan Government which owns 80 percent of Rwandatel is set to invest $94 million (Rwf53.6 billion) this year.

Egbuson said the money will be invested in upgrading the network, GSM sites, Fibre optic and in the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wimax) technology which the operator said is in the piloting phase and will be unveiled in the next 30 days.

Wimax is a telecommunications protocol that provides fixed and fully mobile Internet access. The current WiMAX revision provides up to 40 Mbit/s with the IEEE 802.16m update expected offer up to 1 Gbit/s fixed speeds.

However, Egbuson said that the issue is not to unveil the technology but its to provide and deliver what is made of the technology.

Rwandatel’s service comes at a time when the country’s leading operator by market share, MTN Rwanda, launched the service recently.

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