The CEO of Irembo, Israel Bimpe, has said the company in collaboration with the Rwanda National Police has made the registration for the driver’s license exam open-ended in order to accommodate more people who need the service. Recently, the platform experienced setback resulting to delays in registration and missing out on the deadline set. The setback was attributed to a high number of people who were trying to register during a limited period that was set – usually a week or a month, according to Bimpe. Speaking to Rwanda TV on Tuesday morning, Bimpe said, “This week, we opened 14 places where people can register at any time because the registration service is now open-ended. We have already registered over 50,000 people. So, basically, the problem is already solved.” “Irembo provides over 100 services to over 7000 people every day,” Bimpe added, indicating the load of work the platform handles. When we face any technical glitches especially when a high number of people are trying to register, we do everything possible at that moment to resolve the issue so that peole can register and be able to pay and receive the service they need,” he said. John Bosco Kabera, the spokesperson of the Rwanda National Police said the issue of registration that took place is related to Covid-19 pandemic where the number of people who were registering for driving license exam increased, and they had to wait for a long time. He noted that later in 2021 when they opened registration again, the number was also high given that 12, 600 wanted provisional license while 25,499 wanted a definitive license. He added: This year, people who registered for provisional license were 27,000 and those who registered for the definitive permit were 69,900, but that is not enough because there are still many who never registered in 2020.” Kabera urged people who couldn’t register for a definitive permit and those who registered but never sat for the exam not to worry because they have their records and the system is now in good operation, ready to support them. “In 2021,” he explained, “7660 are the ones who registered, but those who showed up were 15,331 and that is 86 per cent. Those who never showed up are 2329 which is 14 per cent while those who passed were 27 per cent.”
