Inside Banque Populaire: Management promises improvement

It is the afternoon; the time 1 p.m. The sun is hot. The atmosphere in Banque Populaire’s Kimironko branch does not look jovial. Clients look really tired after hours and hours of waiting. Queues are long, service is slow. On arrival, I am greeted by a tirade of complaints from clients. “Don’t think this branch is the only one having this problem. It is in every branch around Kigali,” Bosco Kayinamura, one of the clients laments. Kayinamura is among the long line clients in the bank. He became a member of Banque Populaire in 1995. He has wasted many of his most productive hours due to poor customer care. He has no wish of withdrawing his membership in this bank, but petitions the management to improve service. “We like our bank but its customer care has turned down, and this gives it a negative attitude upon its clients,” he says. When the time of the month comes for him to withdraw his money, Kayinamura does not sleep the whole night as he plans to wake up very early for the morning line up at the bank. “If you want to withdraw or deposit your money here, you don’t sleep in order to reach here before the crowd of clients,” Kayinamura explains. At Remera Banque Populaire clients were also narrating the same dilemma. They suggest that the bank should at least increase its number of employees. Bank clerks are no more than two or three yet there are hundreds of clients. Sam Ezra is among the clients who have come to deposit money. He explains that the bank is too small for the number of clients. “We fill this room and others remain standing outside.”He sometimes gets worried that someone will snatch his envelope of money while he is waiting outside. “This branch is near the road and thugs can at any time, rob you and disappear,” he complains. Ezra states that the introduction of waiting numbers have been successful but still service remains a problem. The Director General of Banque Populaire du Rwanda (BPR), Bernard Itangishaka, says BPR is still a true to its co-operative roots, and has retained its widespread shareholder base of clients from throughout the country. In a telephone interview, he promised improvement.“I have also heard of this problem, but I want to assure our clients on behalf of BPR that this problem could soon be no more,” he said. Itangishaka explianed that they have introduced a new electronic system known as P.O.F, a service that will enable clients to with draw money in any place with BPR branch countrywide. “We have recruited an expert from the Commercial Bank of Rwanda to run this new system successfully,” he said. He adds that the system will work in the whole country at all BPR branches. Banque Populaire du Rwanda (BPR) , established in 1975, is Rwanda’s leading retail bank with a nationwide network of approximately 130 branches and outlets throughout the country. The bank is unique in that over 600,000 client-shareholders jointly own the 65 per cent majority of the bank. Ends