The Rwanda Internet Community and Technology Alliance (RICTA) has unveiled a brand new ‘AkadomoRW social media package’ that will enable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Rwanda to be more visible online and boost sales at an affordable cost.
This package seeks to build on the achievements of two previous successful campaigns dubbed “Nahisemo” and “Zamuka na AkadomoRW”, which aimed at encouraging local entities to adopt and use .RW as the preferred domain name for Rwandans.
With the “Zamuka na AkadomoRW” drive, more local businesses got online with .RW web presence.
RICTA’s current initiative offers a simple and affordable package that give access to more than 1 million social media users in Rwanda with a single web page. This package is not only meant for businesses already selling on social media platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and more but also new businesses venturing to start selling online.
According to Grace Ingabire Mwikarago, the CEO of RICTA, the ‘AkadomoRW social media package’ is a simple yet inexpensive tool that was developed to give SMEs in Rwanda an affordable eCommerce platform that can boost sales without necessarily building a standalone website.
“This package will give businesses more visibility on social media platforms and enable them to sell their products and services on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram while benefiting additional features such as .RW domain name, a google map address and one business email”.
“We believe this package is not just affordable, but it will also bring a great customer experience because clients will be engaging with businesses directly. This product will be a main driver of purchases which makes it a win-win for businesses and customers,” Ingabire said.
In this day and age where online purchases have become the order of the day, RICTA’s new campaign targets new and existing businesses which need quick wins through increased visibility online that can lead to more sales.
This package includes a single landing page with sliders, an about section, the business contact and social media business links through which customer queries can be directly addressed.
Among other benefits, the social media package is easy to setup than a traditional website, it is also light on contents with an eCommerce functionality that is handled off-site and guarantees access to millions of Rwandans across various platforms.
“We believe this is a good offer for SMEs that are still recovering from the impact of Covid-19 and a great opportunity of promoting the ease of doing business online in Rwanda.” Ingabire said.
Businesses will be able to acquire this package at a cost of RWF 30,000 per year. It does not include a payment solution but customers can directly engage the business owners and agree on payment modalities.
RICTA is a not-for-profit organization representing the Interests of Rwanda’s Internet Community. The organisation was formed in 2005 with the objective of managing the .RW country code top level domain and the Rwanda internet exchange point (RINEX). Therefore, RICTA is aiming at enhancing and promoting Internet usage in Rwanda. The organisation’s scope of work includes localization of more relevant local content and applications in Rwanda.