Editor, RE: “Banking in 2017: From ‘branch-centric’ to ‘tech-centric’ growth” (The New Times, January 9). Thank you very much for a very good article. Indeed, it seems obvious that we need to increase banking or more specifically payments services in Rwanda and East Africa in general. Would you believe that in 2017, in the most known bank in Rwanda, you need to write yourself a check to get your own cash out of your own account from a counter? With a mobile penetration rate of 78% and a banking penetration rate of around 25%, there is obviously a room for specialist fin-techs in our country, but I really hope that the authorities can also encourage individuals “with money and brains” to join the competition. Because unfortunately the most revolutionary fin-tech companies are unlikely to come from the big banks themselves or the big mobile companies. Indeed, Uber was not invented by the taxi companies, was it? Eric
