More than 800 sector officers from across the country have received training ahead of the launch of Rwanda Online Platform initiative that is set to provide electronic governance services. The trained government officials, who are now acquainted with necessary skills to create public user accounts, approve applications and notify applicants on the status of their applications will process applications submitted by citizens. The training was conducted by Rwanda Online Platform Limited in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Business Development Fund. The launch of the online services is due this month, according to Rwanda Online Platform Limited chief executive Clement Uwajeneza. Uwajeneza said parallel to the trainings they were in the process of building a network of service access points and agents in partnership with different Government institutions that will allow all citizens, especially those with no direct access to connectivity to access services as they go online. Other government agencies are set to receive training in coming months parallel to the roll out process. “In addition to working with the government, we also entered into all partnerships that are required to put services online, including application hosting providers, telecom services providers, payment solutions providers,” Uwajeneza said. The platform, dubbed “Irembo,” will have provisions for citizens and businesses to register, fill in forms to apply for available services, complete the applications and pay online using visa cards, mobile money or through a bank agent. On completion of the procedures, the application is sent to the government institution in charge for processing. Uwajeneza added that the services to be offered online had been developed with easy usability and impact on customer service experience in mind and were varied depending on the service and level of connectivity. The firm says that the response from the government officials trained was positive with most of them commending the impact of the platform to their jobs. The firm was set to launch 10 inaugural services by May but postponed to this month after encountering challenges in the development process. The first services to receive priority during the launch of the first phase include; application for criminal clearance certificate, transfer of land titles, issuance of trading licenses, application for birth certificates and registration for driving license theory test. After the launch of the inaugural services, there will be a six months window period before phasing out manual processes in the respective government agencies. In a recent interview with The New Times, Rosemary Mbabazi, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Youth and ICT, said the government was working with the firm to make the development possible by availing more community access points to provide online services, branding and change management. Matthew Kubwayo, one of the officers who underwent training, said the platform would ease his work in coming days while facilitating the issuing of trading licenses and Birth certificates. He said a general consensus of those introduced to the platform was that it facilitated in improving customer experiences. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
