Despite a few glitches, usage of electronic transport cards has helped to decongest the roads and reduced hustles in taxi parks and at bus stages, as a result of the time saved compared with the period of cash transactions.

The delays on the different city routes, together with an uncoordinated public transport system subjected passengers to scrambling for buses. This has significantly reduced since they no longer have to wait for change.

“The system has significantly reduced delays, there are no more hustles at bus stops, or taxi parks, we are using electronic cards on all our 12 routes,” said Charles Ngarambe, the executive chairman of Kigali Bus services (KBS).

Before establishment, bus companies used to lose revenues through dubious touts and drivers who used to connive and steal money.

“There is no where the driver and conductor handle money, the system is well streamlined, the leakages have been blocked, it is helping a lot,” he noted.

The system met some resistance from the public, but many have adopted it.

The system which is run by AC Group Limited has faced some hiccups; Some passengers complained about difficulties in reloading their cards when credit is used up, yet the buses do not accept cash payments on a number of routes.

“A couple of times I have suffered, you have a card that cannot be reloaded, you explain the issue to the conductor and he’s adamant, he can’t accept cash,” said Aimable Benimana.

Patrick Bucyana, the AC group managing director said the system had a problem once, and it has since been rectified and many agents are positioned in different bus parks and bus stops for customers to easily reload cards.

“The system went down once, our system works online and offline; we haven’t had any issues. In two weeks we want to be manufacturing the cards here for quick access” he said.

He said there is still some resistance from some passengers and conductors because they still want to take cash.

“Some people load money for one route, you find someone charges 200 for going, and charges another 200 when they want to come back, this is not helping passengers, the more they load the better” he said.

One card costs Rwf1,300 and can be used across all bus companies, something which has helped passengers to use any bus that is available. The card is transferable, for instance you can give it to a friend to use.

He said the system has enabled the partner bus companies like KBS, Royal express, and RFTC to increase revenue collections by 30 per cent, and reduce accidents by 70 per cent.

Despite these innovations and advancements in the public transport sector, financial institutions still shun the sector, which has affected its growth.

“There is still no appetite for financial institutions to finance the public transport sector, yet things are not really bad, they have their reasons which we don’t know,” said Mr Ngarambe.