Over the past months the President, has opened up a war against poor service delivery both in public and private sector institutions operating within the country. Most times he always has had to remind Rwandans of the importance of good service delivery to this nation and its people whenever there is an occasion that involves his presence. In his keynote address to the employees of the National Bank of Rwanda on Monday the President re-echoed the same words; this time emphasising the need to integrate modernisation with service delivery. The President, who seemed jovial during this address, used a serious tone whenever he mentioned something to do with service delivery. As I listened to this interesting speech that often zeroed back to issues of the importance of provision of favourable and timely services, my mind quickly ran back to one of the most popular and most recognized banks in this town, whose name I wont mention but will definitely be forced to expose if they don’t improve on the way they handle their customers. This is a kind of a bank whose workers will leave the customers in the cue and go for lunch where they even spend much time than usual without considering the people they left behind. In most of these banks you will find the tellers busy in private discussions which usually do take a lot of their time despite the long cues that patiently wait for their services. It is also not uncommon to find some of these tellers chatting on Internet when the “poor” customers are eagerly waiting to be served; thinking that the “good” teller is busy working on bank related issues when the character’s attention is in an Internet chat room. It is indeed a wonderful fact that the President has turned his attention to the banking sector. These bankers must be shaken otherwise the banking sector might be found to be the worst service provider in this country. I hope the President’s speech to the managers of the banking sector will be taken seriously and the subsequent result will be appreciated by the entire population. I wouldn’t wish to go into the nit-gritty of the entire service provider’s handling of customers but it very unfortunate that despite the President’s own initiative to put things into order, there is no much improvement realised in especially the hotel sector. It is very embarrassing. Service providers please, save our President this never ending lecture. In African tradition, an elder’s word was keenly observed and respected in order to avoid forcing the elder to repeat the same word. Rwandan culture has always been that of respect of leadership and elders. Let us do exactly the same now. phatari@yahoo.co.uk The author is a regular contributor
