As Irembo prepares to introduce new services, both end-users and software product testing experts are calling for the platform to address technical glitches that have been affecting its service delivery.

Irembo was established in 2014 with the aim of digitizing government services and providing citizens with convenient and efficient access to a range of services, However end-users have reported a series of technical glitches that have caused delays and frustrations.

In February 2022, for example, senators reported that Rwandan citizens living abroad were having difficulty accessing government services through Irembo if they did not have a Rwandan telephone number or national ID.

More recently, technical setbacks have caused delays in driver's license exam registration and caused some users to miss the registration deadline.

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The setback was attributed to the high number of people who were trying to register during a limited period that was set – usually a week or a month.

In 2020, people seeking criminal record certificates through Irembo were also stranded as they could not access the service.

Due to the hiccups in the system at this time over 6,000 applicants were stranded.

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During this time, the problem was attributed to the breakdown in the network that links National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) with the Irembo system.

These are a few examples of citizens’ complaints about the glitches.

"When the system is down, citizens blame us thinking we are the ones causing problems. We realized that many citizens need civil status certificates, land services, registration for driving license and others which need an efficient network. When it goes down, we also lose,” said Fabiola Umugwaneza, one of the Irembo agents in the Kimironko sector.

Pledge to improve stability and reliability

Irembo has indicated in the past that the load of work that the platform handles is the cause of glitches.

It provides over 100 services to over 7000 people every day in partnership with 18 government institutions.

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Speaking about how the glitches could be addressed based on Umushyikirano dialogue, an Irembo representative told The New Times that they are working on continuously improving the IremboGov platform’s stability and reliability, but also improving the different functionalities and features to ensure it can accommodate more applications, and more services.

She said that the improvement is needed, "to reflect the evolving nature of demand around the different services it provides and that more services can be added faster and efficiently.”

However, the official didn’t disclose which services could be added on Irembo platform.

Meanwhile, she said improving the different functionalities and features will also ensure citizens can access Irembo on various platforms such as website, mobile app, USSD, among others.

Irembo has processed in total over 20 millions applications.

There are over 950 government officers and private notaries who also use Irembo to process services digitized on Irembo end-to-end.

There are over 5,000 agents who support citizens in accessing services on the Irembo platform.

What experts say

Janis Just, Head of Offshore operations at TestSolutions –a Germany-based company with 15 years experience in testing quality of software products that is currently operating in Rwanda said that there is need to train and produce more talented young workforce that can help in testing and ensuring all software products such as Irembo are efficient.

"There is a need for improving software products. We see challenges ahead when it comes to e-government services. Rwanda is very much in front but still you will have to provide service to citizens that will be satisfied. It is important to promote software testing. Otherwise the client will not be happy with software,” he said.

He said that currently 10 talented young workforce are being trained to provide software testing service in Rwanda as the experience is lacking.

Isabelle Bucyeyeneza, an expert in software development and testing with five years of experience said that Irembo-which is a platform many Rwandans are using to access different services-needs partners in software testing to address glitches that affect service delivery.

"Irembo system goes slowly on some services. Sometimes it goes down with many people who are end users since it does not have such a huge capacity to handle applications. Experts in software products testing can partner in addressing this before adding more services on the platform,” she said, adding that software product testing is a new service in Rwanda.

She added that software products such as Irembo should be inclusive for people with visual impairment.

"There are many software products which are rejected because they were not tested for quality,” she said.