SIMTEL, the country’s electronic payments service provider is targeting one million ATM cardholders by 2010. If the target is hit, this will be a 99 per cent growth in ATM users in Rwanda. Statistics from Simtel indicates that only 12,000 people in Rwanda have ATM cards. To attract more card users, the company plans to increase the number of ATM machines from the current 22 to 100, countrywide. The company also plans to increase sale points from 12 to 50. The Simtel consortium was recently recapitalised and shareholding readjusted to allow in a new investor. After the exercise, Government through the national bank now has 8 per cent stake, commercial banks have 22 per cent while the African Development Corporation (ADC) has 70 per cent shares. ADC recently recapitalised the consortium by investing $3.5 million (about Frw1.9 billion) Rogers Munyampenda , Simtel chief executive said: “With the new partnership from African Development Cooperation, we will be able to build on the existing structures, expand the number of ATMs and increase the number of terminals and extend services to customers.” As of December last year, Simtel registered Frw1 billion transactions—electronic payment and deposits compared to Frw24 million in 2005. Ends
