The National Bank of Rwanda has been urged to come up with regulations to increase uptake of cashless transactions.

It has emerged that lack of regulations have resulted in the concentration of infrastructure in urban areas while excluding a larger populations in other areas.

A recent research revealed that the use of point of sale (POS) and mobile financial services (MFS) in the country is still low despite statistics showing that it is picking. As of September last year, the research found that only 45 per cent of bank account holders in the country had ATM cards.

The value of e-payments through ATMs, POS terminals, mobile banking, mobile money and Internet banking increased from $130 million in 2012 to $1,465 million in 2014.

However, an analysis of the usage of various electronic channels used in Rwanda suggests that the acquisition of debit cards was slower than the number of new people subscribing to mobile banking and mobile payments. This has been partly blamed on lack of clarity on the BNR’s guidelines ensuring adequate infrastructure for e-payments, resulting in a fragmented system.

“This can lead to high costs for providers and fewer POS terminals available to consumers,” the research by Enclude, a Colombian advisory firm points out.

The research was commissioned by Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR) and the National Bank of Rwanda to find out barriers to uptake of electronic payments in Rwanda.

The researchers found out that there is lack of co-operation and co-ordination among stakeholders who include banks, telecoms and other payment service providers. The market also lacks regulation on POS transaction, fees and charges resulting in high transaction costs.

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Rwanda Today found out that the costs of ATM transactions on the market are not uniform with some banks like Bank of Kigali not charging its clients.

The charges range from an average of Rwf300 to Rwf2,000 depending on whether you are a client of the bank whose ATM machine is being used.

The high cost of acquiring an agency banking licence from central bank has scared away many would be agents. The research also indicated that lack of adequate financial education on e-payments and its benefits have largely contributed to the low awareness and usage of the channels.

In an interview with Rwanda Today Rutayisirye Manzi, head of advocacy at Rwanda Private Sector Federation, said some private sector players lack information about the need to use e-payments.

He suggested that central bank, commercial banks and merchants should partner with the private sector federation to educate the business community.

However, Maurice Toroitich, managing director of Kenya Commercial Bank Rwanda pointed out that challenges the rollout of e-payment faces is that the business community in Rwanda still prefers cash transactions.

“The business community is driven by the fear that e-payments are settled through the banks,” Said Mr Toroitich.