I will begin with a confession; I seriously dislike roadside shopping! So what? You may ask. Until recently, this was a non-issue for me as well but things have changed. While my appreciation of Rwanda’s scenic landscape across the countryside is undiminished, it now has to be interrupted by haggling and the random inspection of foodstuffs displayed by the roadsides or else I risk being chided; ”what kind of man goes out of town and returns home empty handed?” The fact that my family lives less than 500 metres from Kigali’s largest market in Kimironko notwithstanding, such are the joys of family life! On a recent trip from Musanze to Kigali, I decided to embrace my ancestral role of ‘hunter-gatherer’ by doing a spot of roadside vegetable shopping. A vendor approached me with half a bagful of an assortment of vegetables that included onions, green peppers, carrots and others. After singing the praises of his wares, he went on to inform me that a bagful of a similar assortment would cost me Rwf6,000. This sounded like a bargain and I promptly ordered one. A bag was loaded into the car and off I went. On getting home, the bag contained 4 large cabbages, lots of French beans and a few carrots! The total cost of the full bag at Kimironko prices was no more than Rwf3,000, so I had been fleeced of at least 50% the value of my total purchase! It maybe only Rwf3,000, but the experience reinforced my dread for roadside shopping. More than that, it also got me thinking; how many more shoppers undergo similar experiences on a daily basis? When I first shared this story with a friend, she narrated how she too had been a victim to a similar fraud at a roadside market on the Musanze-Kigali highway. A sign read Rwf1,700 for a kilo of beef. In Kigali, the same ‘beef on the bone’ goes for Rwf 2,200 so she decided to buy 5 kilos. On getting home, the pack had 2 kilos of beef and 3 kilos of offals! This cannot be coincidence. There must be more silent victims out there. My gripe is not about the sums involved, it’s the habit of misrepresenting the true value of what a customer expects as opposed to what they are actually getting! The problem is not unique to roadside markets. Amongst taxis and ‘Motos’ you are likely to get charged according to how you are dressed; suits and ties are a serious disadvantage. Worse still if you are Mzungu (white/light skinned), you will probably pay double price! While this practice is wide spread in Africa, that does not make it acceptable. It is counterproductive in encouraging visitors to the continent as a whole but I will focus on Rwanda for this discourse. The issue of flexible or discretionary pricing for almost any item you can think of, from land and houses to bananas by the roadside, has created a business ethos of ‘who will be my fool?’ instead of ‘what value can I offer?’ The extent of this can be incredibly hilarious. A little while back I was looking for a showerhead and so I went to the Gisozi area, lately known as ‘agakiriro’. I went to 3 shops lined up one after the other and a particular kind of showerhead with the same basic functionality and branding was separately quoted at Rwf30,000, 55,000 and 70,000! Haggling specifically over small purchases does not appeal to me. My rationale is that it is usually not worth the time it takes up. It is widely accepted that time is money. My own view is that time is worth more than money. I tend to value time in terms of how much peace of mind it can buy me. A good example to illustrate the concept; if I have to choose between spending a holiday like Easter with my family and completing a client’s report that’s due in the next few days, no amount of money is going to make up for the agony that comes with the trade-off. That’s why I love shopping in supermarkets. You walk in well-knowing that the items are overpriced but the prices are clearly displayed. The choice is yours, pay the said price or look elsewhere; simple and efficient. The recent drive to promote Rwandan brands should look beyond just the products but also the entire value chain, from primary producer to the final consumer. The experience of the customer should be significantly more pleasant than that of consuming competing foreign brands. The perceived value, above all else, plays a critical role in determining the choices that consumers make on a daily basis. If purchasing Rwandan products seems particularly cumbersome, it will not matter that the products are of very good quality. A consumer may opt for the readily available, fairly priced albeit inferior product. This was the case a few years back with cement from CIMERWA. While builders appreciated the quality of this Rwandan cement, its relative scarcity, coupled with a higher price, made alternatives from the EAC region preferable. Consumers from all walks of life want to be assured that they are getting a fair deal. As Rwanda continues to assert its influence across the globe, it is also important that those who make the trip to our beloved country do not go home with horror stories of being fleeced by taxi drivers, ‘moto’ riders and market vendors. Last year, the Ministry of Trade and Industry made their efforts to pursue consumer protection by spearheading the creation of a new body, Rwanda Inspectorate and Competition Authority (RICA). This institution has the mandate to ensure that there is fair competition amongst businesses and that products on the market meet the standards set by Rwanda Standards Board and other relevant standards bodies. Together with other consumer rights campaigners like ADECOR, the work is cut out for RICA to create a culture of ethical business practices into the Rwandan market. As things stand today, it is a dog eat dog world…… For comfort, I will take solace in these adulterated lyrics from John Lennon’s epic song ‘Imagine’;“……….Imagine no fraudsters, I wonder if you canNo need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of manImagine all the prices being fair in all the world...” The writer is a consultant and trainer specializing in Finance and Strategy. He lives in Kigali.
