Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) has called upon all customers of the now-defunct Kwese Support Services Rwanda who suffered losses to file their claims to the regulator before September 10. A subsidiary of Econet Group, Kwese was a pay-TV distribution company that shut down its operations in Rwanda on August 5, 2019. According to a statement from RURA, all claims should be filed between September 7 and 10 and the customers include subscribers and dealers or distributors. Speaking to The New Times, Beata Mukangabo the General Manager, legal and regulatory affairs at RURA said that call for claims is a normal process whenever a licenced company shuts down due to different reasons. “In order to protect consumers, before we issue a license to anyone doing Pay TV business, we require them a performance bond which can cover losses that might be incurred by their customers. This is because service providers receive money from customers before providing the service,” Mukagabo said. In the case of Kwese, she said, the performance guarantee bond is worth $100,000 and this amount will be used to refund any affected customers. She noted that RURA had not received any complaint before but explained that it is their responsibility as a regulator to protect the consumers and inform them their rights. Asked what happens in case the complaint that requires refund that exceeds the available bond, she said that is rare but assured the public that RURA would figure out a solution to protect consumers at all cost. According to a statement issued on Tuesday by the regulator, all claims before being considered must be backed by evidence. Kwese TV shut down operations in 2019 putting an end to a pan-African Pay-TV company that promised world-class content for the continent of Africa. According to Econet Group, the parent company of Kwese, shortage of foreign exchange and the high cost of acquiring content and paying in foreign currency were the major reasons that forced the firm to shut down after just three years. During their three years of operation, Kwese TV gained tens of thousands of subscribers across more than 12 African countries, providing premium content to its diverse African audience. However, they did not get anywhere close enough to South African DStv, one of the dominant content distributors in Africa, with over 20.9 million subscribers.
