Coining a new business

Passing any taxi park in town, you can hear voices calling ‘coins’. The calls engulf the place making you think that passengers are called coins. “Coin is the term used by coin buyers to call coin sellers, a business that has hit taxi parks, taxi stands and various streets of Kigali city,” Joachim Hakizimana, a coin seller in Giporoso Taxi Park, explains. Hakizimana recalls that the business started when taxis raised fares from one Frw100 to Frw170. “Passengers did not readily have the right coins and taxi conductors were finding it hard to get balance for big notes from passengers,” he says. Quarrels between passengers and taxi conductors were erupting on a daily basis; it prompted some to start a ‘coin selling’ business that could help to facilitate, curb the balance problem, Hakizimana explains. “Now the business is becoming progressively strong especially here in town because it requires very little capital and many unemployed young men are joining,” he says. He adds that they get coins to sell from banks or big supermarkets in town at no cost and sometimes from conductors who don’t mind buying them again when a the need arises. Hakizimana says that they not only sell coins to people in the transport system but also to anyone who wants them and agrees to their terms. “We charge a standard fee of Frw50 for every Frw500 we change and one can make a profit ranging from Frw2500 to 3000 a day depending to the number of customers you have,” Hakizimana reveals. William Ntindereza, a taxi conductor, says that people selling coins have made their work easy and also save passengers’ time. “I think it’s a nice business and they should keep it up because we used to waste a lot of passengers’ time trying to look for their balance, but now you just call ‘coin’ people,” he explains. He further acknowledges that even the money they charge is reasonable and does not reduce their daily profits. “You don’t even feel that margin, in relation to the way we used to suffer looking for balance from your fellow conductors and drivers,” Ntindereza says. Adding, that it’s now the norm that before they drive off, conductors ask passengers with big notes to get change so that they don’t encounter balance problems along the way. “Previously, we used to make big losses to passengers with big notes who always used to leave with out paying tax fares because of change problems,” Ntindereza explains. A passenger who preferred to speak on the condition of anonymity said coming up with such business in the country, shows that unemployed Rwandans can start small income generating business which does not require much capital. “I know people involved in coin selling business can better support themselves with the little income they earn daily,” she said. Ends