Atraco to transition from non-profit association to co-op

‘To put an end to challenges of yesteryears , given the ownership restructure Atraco has had, we envisage that this new move will pave the way for the drastic change that is urgently needed in the way public transport will be managed in Rwanda’ Last Tuesday morning, I went to interview Atraco President Ludovic Dodo Twahirwa at his Nyabugogo based headquarters in down town Kigali. When we checked into Dodo’s office, the reception was packed with curious association members who were waiting to see their president on various issues. As I had secured an appointment for 11.00 am, I was told by one of his assistants to wait for a couple of minutes as the association president would be able to see me in a few minutes. The subject of my exclusive interview was the ongoing restructuring exercise of Atraco. More specifically I wanted to know whether Dodo and the team undertaking the restructuring of the giant transport services provider, had their ears on the ground in as far as the association’s perception was concerned. “What is the latest on the highly anticipated restructuring exercise for Atraco?” I asked. His reply was measured but methodical. “We have covered a lot of new ground, while going about the exercise ever since it kicked off. The most important aspect is the consensus that has been reached that Atraco should transition from an association to a cooperative’’. The idea, was that the transition would technically mean that the entity would be positioned as a profit making organization as opposed to previously when it was not, he argued. “That being the case we have actually engaged Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA) for the purposes of making this transition possible’’, Dodo said. “We carried out a three day seminar to sensitize our members on the different aspects of this transition,’’ he said. Mr Dodo added that those who attended the seminar were expected to pass on what they had learnt to other members. Mr Dodo insisted that the transition exercise would be done in a month’s time from now once sensitization aspect is completed. “Sensitization entails public education on the likely benefits which as I had said is largely based on the profit motive. Once profit is assured then members will have better forms of incentives. I must add that this transition has the full backing of all members,’’ he said. Dodo added that members were very enthusiastic on having Atraco to transition immediately, but due process of the law had to be followed. Once all procedures are completed, which time Dodo says, will be a month at most, then Atraco will emerge as one of the biggest cooperatives in Rwanda. Part of the completion of the due process entails calling for the meeting of the association’s general assembly to ratify the move. The general assembly will sit during the course of early next month. Atraco has officially over one thousand two hundred members. These are members who hold association cards. However, Dodo added that Atraco has over two thousand as additional but unofficial members. As a national cooperative Atraco will have a body structure that will eventually cascade to the lower levels up from the very top. There will be what Dodo calls primary cooperatives, the kinds of entities that will be at district levels. Such entities will be formed out of areas that have bus terminals. At a higher level, a number of primary cooperatives will join forces to form unions. This is akin to several districts forming a province within the local government system. The apex body will be the federation. ‘’Where will be top officials like you be positioned?’’, I asked him. Dodo explained that as a cooperative there will be grassroots elections that will elect office bearers. Five office bearers will form the primary cooperative’s management unit which ultimately a collection of primary cooperatives will elect nine office bearers to form the union structure and its management. Quite clearly, Dodo insisted, that the new look Atraco is now embracing better forms of governance structures for the purposes of ensuring accountability and more transparency, more so in terms of operations. I quickly reminded Dodo that media reports during the course of last year, had talked about alleged cases of mismanagement at various lower levels, which Dodo was very quick to dispute.‘’That was not the true picture. Each and every location where we had our activities had some sort of administrative structure in place. Each unit had its own management complete with an oversight body quite separate from that of the day to day management unit. The oversight body is one directly elected by members to ensure accountability’’, he added. Dodo argued that such a two tier structure that was meant to ensure that accountability, talk about lack of accountability is thus uncalled for. I then delved into the emerging scenarios within the transport industry in Rwanda. “Look at how the transport industry is fast changing. While Atraco has been in existence for ages, new players have come in who are making a big difference in the provision of public transport’’, I challenged him and further pointed out cases of new service providers such as Kigali Bus Service and Volcano Express. I added that KBS for instance was now moving to higher levels of service provision by embracing new approaches such as buying bigger capacity buses and issuing seasonal and next generation tickets despite being relatively new service providers. Dodo’s reply was in his true characteristic soldier’s style. “While Atraco can be perceived to be down as you are saying, I have no doubt in my mind that Atraco cannot be said to be not completely out. Atraco is such a huge institution with assets running into billions of francs’’. Dodo went further to illustrate his point on how he intends to revive the fortunes of Atraco. “During my time as a soldier, I learnt that suffering a loss during a battle should be used to strengthen one’s weaknesses and to boost one’s resolves as a fighter. That being the case, I can only say that we have since critically studied the weaknesses within Atraco and we are now planning anew how we can reposition Atraco. When we come out, expect something that will radically change, for the better, how public transport is provided in Rwanda, ’’he pointed out. Dodo went further to point out that it is indeed wrong to assume that Atraco has not been studying the situation within the transport industry. “All these organizations you are talking about are private companies while all this time Atraco remained held hostage by its non-profit status, a factor which hampered its growth potential unlike the competitors. We even went a step further by coming up with Atraco express as people are aware, but that particular move went against Atraco’s original inclination as an association’’. Dodo was referring to a hybrid transport service provider Atraco Express, in which the mother association held a 40 percent stake. “The idea was that we wanted to offer the kind of services that was at par with the changing times, but I must say that we faced hurdles arising out of the fact that Atraco still was a non-profit entity’’. Along the way it emerged that market regulator Rwanda Utilities Regulator Agency (RURA) advised that taking such a new route of developing a hybrid service amounted to contradictions of sorts. With the completion of the restructuring, Atraco’s membership is expected to increase substantially. The general assembly is expected to set the fresh rules of the new look Atraco such as setting the membership fees. The transition to being a cooperative entails ascertaining the actual financial health of Atraco and eventually transferring this actual financial position to the new structures.RCA is undertaking the audit whose comprehensive report is expected to come out by next month. The audit report will guide the decision making process of the eventual transition in as far as transfer of the assets and liabilities to the new body is concerned. For instance the audit will guide which assets will be transferred to the primary cooperative and which will be transferred to the unions. Once the restructuring is complete, Atraco intends to reposition by largely getting into acquisition of new rolling stock to enable it offer better services country wide. Already Atraco had embarked on modernising its physical amenities such as bus parks, a case in point being the Rwf 500 million rehabilitation of Nyabugogo bus terminal. Another similar project was the Kayonza bus terminal that costed a similar amount of cash, in which Atraco largely funded the project using its own internal revenues. The same applies to the Rwamagana bus terminal. Before concluding my interview I asked Dodo about the likelihood of reviving Atraco Football Club. “There was a time Atraco was riding very high, so much so that Atraco FC brought glory to Rwanda. Now that you are talking about totally overhauling Atraco, are we likely to see Atraco FC making a serious came back?’’, I asked. “On that I suggest that you be patient until we reposition. Much as I do not want to count my chicks before they hatch, I can only say that matters to do with our former football club will be handled much later on. But it is something we will most likely pursue once we ascertain how the future of business in the new look Atraco will unfold’’. Ends