Left, Paul Barera, Managing Director RTN and Déo Massawe, Ag. Managing Director, BK TechHouse pose for a photo after signing the partnership agreement.
BK TecHouse, a prominent technology solutions provider, has entered into a partnership with Rwanda Telecentre Network (RTN), a leading Agents Network company to ease school fees payments for parents and caregivers who still prefer to make cash through agents.
The strategic partnership was made a reality on November 6, 2023 between the two parties represented by Deo Massawe, the BK TecHouse acting Managing Director and Paul Barera, the RTN Managing Director.
The partnership will leverage on the 1,600 RTN agents (out of 4,000 agents) who have been trained and equipped with skills and technology to handle UrubutoPay services and make payments for other banks using one single wallet.
Leveraging on the trust that citizens have for agents, Rwandans will only pay a convenience fee from between Rwf150 to Rwf1500.
Deo Massawe said that UrubutoPay will leverage RTN agents to allow schools to easily collect school fees and parents to easily make school fees payments.
“We want to expand the Urubuto pay reach to make payment as easy and accessible as possible. The goal is to make sure that parents, wherever they live, don’t have to walk or spend on transport but go to the nearest agent. This will also help schools to collect fees,” Massawe said.
The partnership between RTN and BK TecHouse will improve digital payments and fasten transactions.
Paul Barera said that they have 4,000 agents countrywide and so far 1,500 of them have been on-boarded in the new RTN Iteme platform which aggregates different banking non-banking services and allow agents to use a single wallet in delivering all those services to citizens.
Barera said that adding Urubuto Pay on the Iteme platform will enable their agents to benefit and so will more parents.
“This will be an opportunity for citizens to adapt to the use of technology in payments and embrass it instead of fearing it,” Barera said.
UrubutoPay currently covers 450 schools and 8 universities who bank with Bank of Kigali and Umwalimu Sacco, with a network that supports over 220,000 students who transact about Rwf25 billion a year.
Bruce Karagire, Sales and Marketing Lead at BK TecHouse said the plan is to reach 1,000 schools next year and add more banks onto the platform. He added that although this partnership debuts with the introduction of school fees payments through agents, it will also open doors for other institutions and businesses to provide digital services to their customers and enable them to collect payments through agents.
Service providers interested in joining this transformative partnership are encouraged to contact 0788 195 700 to explore the opportunities and benefits it offers.
Signed and sealed.
