As Rwanda continues to excel in the digital age, a variety of tech innovations are continuously being developed to create solutions to different challenges facing the country. Tragacy is the latest innovation developed by Capecast Group, a tech startup co-founded by three young innovators Pacifique Ishimwe, 19, Pierratono Costa Mahoro, 18 and 20-year-old Fiston Rutikanga, who previously invented an app that detects alcohol intake by drivers and stops the car engine. Ishimwe and Mahoro are high school graduates in computer electronics at Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC) – Kigali while Rutikanga is a High school student who is majoring in Mechanical Engineering. The application creates a platform that links up clients and business operators or service providers as it helps them to reach out to each other to do business easily and efficiently. The challenges clients face wondering where they can have a service or buy products they want without travelling for a long distance inspired the trio to think of how such challenges can be turned into an opportunity that can benefit both the client and the service provider or a business operator. “Sometimes people travel for a long distance looking for a service or a product which may be even found closer to them. That is what the application will primarily respond to because they can use it to find the nearest place they can get what they want,” said Ishimwe. Tragacy especially helps the general public to find the nearest place they can access a service or buy the goods they want. It combines two applications namely Tragacy Travel which deals with public transport business and My Tragacy which serves to locate any business and service available with just a click on the application. Tragacy Travel serves to help public transport operators, and has a GPS-installed device that helps to easily locate passengers. “My Tragacy is an instrumental that shows the geographic location of a certain institution or a business company, their products and services to let the customer trace the nearest shop to buy the product he wants or ask for a service at a given nearest service provider,” Mahoro said Business operators and service providers can update the list of products and services available in their institutions for easy access. While it gives a platform for clients to interact with service providers through the app, Tragacy is made in a way that anyone using the application receives notifications whenever a business institution or service provider adds a new product or service on the application and this helps boost revenue for the company. Anyone who wants to use the application is requested to register before opening it for use. “Users must register to use the application for security reasons. It is intended to identify those who are using our application with known identification,” Ishimwe says. And, anyone can use Tragacy to access information stored in both Tragacy Travel and My Tragacy. With Tragacy Travel, public transport operators using the application will be able to trace and locate waiting passengers in their direction. “For instance, motorists using Tragacy Travel will find it easy to locate the nearest passengers in their direction and that may make public transport efficient,” Rutikanga told Sunday Times. The new technology took the students two years to successfully conduct the research and test. “With evolving technology in Rwanda, we have been looking for the best way to link clients and business owners,” Rutikanga said. Charges Business operators and service providers are requested to approach the application developers to agree on terms and conditions, as well as the cost of appearing on their application platforms. Anyone looking for a service can use the Tragacy and the application is free of charge. Meanwhile, the cost of using Tragacy Travel is Rwf 4,000 per month while business companies or service providers using My Tragacy will be required to pay Rwf 7,000 per month. With the use of Tragacy, the application developers believe business will be run smoothly and efficiently. “Sometimes a location may be a disadvantage for a business to make a profit. A simple example is that of people doing business on the upper floors of buildings. But I am pretty sure that anyone using this application can finally, save their businesses and make profit no matter what location their businesses is located because their products will be much more exposed, as long as they have good products or services for their clients,” said Mahoro. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
