Kigali, 18th January 2017-In 1967, the Rwanda National Bank Governor by the names Masaya Hattori established the first public transport company by the names “Regie Des Transport Publique (RTP) aimed at serving geographically isolated rural areas of Rwanda. Later on in 1978 under a decree No.10/78 , the company changed names to ONATRACOM and took over the earlier mandate of RTP and in addition to over the responsibilities to serve the urban, rural, intercity and international routes to match the then social and commercial transport demands. Worth to note is that by then there was close to none of individual car ownership leave alone remunerated public transport services; thanks to Governor Hattori.

The creation of ONATRACOM was perceived as a relief to transport challenges but little did the beneficiaries know that it was a solution for a while. Transport demands continued to become complex with growing population and was later overwhelmed by events with its relevance loosing meaning alongside the growing relatively effective private sector participation on profitable routes and leaving only non-profitable rural routes at its disposal with high operating costs. It was thus inevitable that the company failed to survive calling for a strong strategic decision.

In 2012, the Government of Rwanda adopted the public transport policy and strategy aimed at streamlining rural, urban and intercity public transport. One of the policy provisions was to restructure the government owned public transport company (ONATRACOM) into a high breed company in a public private arrangement for efficiency and effectiveness in line with V2020 targets that envisions Rwanda to be a private sector led economy.

In December 2015, the Cabinet Meeting approved the establishment of a joint venture between the Government of Rwanda and Private by the names “Rwanda Interlink Transport Company Limited” (RITCO) to take over the management of ONATRACOM which was faced with outstanding management issues in addition to financial problems.

In its business plan, RITCO was to purchase in total 163 buses to revive the earlier operated ONATRACOM routes in a transitional period of 12 months but in the meantime take over the old fleet.

As things stand for the first 6 months, RITCO has been able to meet all the operational financial demands with the old 50 buses fleet and made a 20% savings in addition to paying all related taxes.

According to MININNFRA officials, the first phase made up of 50 buses has been procured with the first batch of 20 buses delivered to Rwanda and 30 more still on transit expected to be delivered very soon.  

The bus passenger carrier capacity is 57 with a 2X2 executive seat arrangement, flashed with internet compatibility, front and back TV sets, internal front & back cameras and external monitoring cameras all to facilitate driver vehicle management. Worth to note is that the buses have an ample cargo space capable of accommodating up to 7 tons of goods.  

RITCO aims at becoming both a leading local and regional transporter with safety and customer satisfaction at the forefront.

However RITCO will first concentrate on local passenger transport with both rural and intercity trips to fully master the local game and later will roll out to the region diligently to facilitate local traders to access regional markets.

With Rwanda’s vision of congestion and pollution free business environment, RITCO comes in with up to 1140 passenger seats; converting this into individual 5 seater passenger cars, RITCO reduces road traffic density by 228 car units with its only 20 buses thus reducing travel time and costs.

The reduction in the traffic density from 228 to 20 car units imply that the car related pollution should be reducing if the private cars can be put off the road thus ensuring clean air for City duelers. Private car owners should thus be encouraged to adopted public transport than private means in the interest of health and safety.

On the economic front, it is worth to note that the increase in the heavy occupancy vehicles goes hand in hand with increased trade transactions with the rural population especially those in geographically isolated zones; thus a very good happy new year 2017 message.