In order to run a business in the city, you need an annual “patente.” This is a business license, why we still call it patente beats me, but that’s another story. You see in the past, we’ve paying the required cleaning services for the whole year. However, we have been told, get this, there is a new online system which generates “assessments and therefore require monthly allocations to different account.”  As such we have to make monthly payments.  We were to pay RwF100, 000 for March to December by cheque, but this was rejected.  Instead, we need to issue 10 cheques of RwF10, 000 for each month or worse, pay RwF10, 000 in cash each time to the district.

1. Who designed this “online system” which takes us backwards?
2. Who authorized this system, which I am sure is paid by our tax monies and is wasting our time and resources? ICT is supposed to be a driver of our development particularly in improving service delivery to citizens NOT complicate it.
3. Do you know how hard RDB has worked to simplify doing business and now you are taking us backward?
4. How do you turn away money, which we are lucky to get upfront and not a month later?
5. Do you know it costs Rwf5000 to get a cheque book? Where is the consideration of the businesses you serve in asking them to write 10 separate cheques? Do you consider the time and money spent just to make this payment both for us and for the city?
6. Since this is part of our annual, why can’t all this be included in one bill?
7. Why didn’t this online system simplify things instead of complicate them?

Please City of Kigali, understand private sector-led development is crucial to our sustained development and you CANNOT be the ones adding red tape to doing business.  Thank you for understanding and swift action to rectify this to keep us moving forward.