KIGALI - Hardly two months after its launch, Lotto Rwanda, has fallen out with its GPRS provider, Rwandatel for having failed to provide coverage for a timely data base for information and transparency. According to Lotto’s Chief Executive Officer Phillip Brizoua, the decision to terminate Rwandatel’s services was because they were not satisfied with it. “If we decide to work with someone, I prefer that they do their honest part to the best of their ability,” Brizoua told journalists adding that Rwandatel did not meet the required standards. “Our server is now at the MTN Centre from where it will be configured and by the end of next week people can again start buying tickets by SMS. They have over 10,000 dealers countrywide and it will be easy to reach the population,” Brizoua said. No one could confirm the total amount of money that was sunk into the deal. He also revealed that eight containers carrying 566 slot machines had been shipped in and soon they would reach Kigali to boost the business. These will add to the 250 that are already in operation. When contacted, Rwandatel’s Chief Executive Officer Patrick Kaliningufu confirmed this, but anticipated a possible comeback. “From a meeting last week, we are negotiating the contract to redefine our coverage role but they (Lotto) have proposed to also work with MTN,” Kaliningufu said by telephone yesterday. “We provided 300 Sim cards which were all subscribed to internet and it’s unfortunate that they want to pull out but if they must, they should come out and openly tell us,” .he replied. Kaliningufu pointed out that the two month old company was to committed bringing value added services to its subscribers and Lotto was one of the ways to achieve this. MTN Rwanda CEO Themba Khumalo said he was ignorant about the development saying he has not been in the country. “I just came back from leave yesterday and I am not yet aware of the new developments, I am therefore not in position to comment about it,” Khumalo said by telephone yesterday. Meanwhile the lottery company is not yet convinced about the full commitment of their financial partner, Ecobank who were supposed to have opened 100 accounts but have not yet fulfilled this commitment. “Any recognized and interested bank or national operator should be free to contact us for business contracts now that we have ended 2008, the year of investment,” Brizoua said. He pledged that to ensure sufficient customer coverage, gaming shops would be established in all parts of the country and an international auditing company had been hired to monitor the draws. Ends
