Motor riders claim a discontent with insurance fee

Motor riders in Kigali continue pledging further actions to favor a betterment of their job as the authorities have been in the progress of barriers-removing but the cost of insurance went undiscussed.

This came up toward a public concern following a recent meeting of Kigali motor riders joined by authorities from Kigali City, National Police, Rwanda Utility Regulatory Agency (RURA), and Rwanda Cooperatives Agency (RCA) on 14^th November 2022 at Kigali Regional Stadium.

Among the conclusions of that meeting includes exempting the Kigali motorists from settling monthly fees and also merging their 41 cooperatives into 5 cooperatives, Government accepted to secure payrolls of the motor security enforcement guards in addition to succumbing to all cooperatives indebted to the government.

However, this meeting welcomed a resolution to most predominant problems, those motor riders were facing day-to-day within their career but a bigger part of them found that resolution not enough to eradicate challenges tampering with motor business transport in Kigali where they didn’t regard the cost of insurance fee to the motorist as a hindrance.

Mr. Nshimiyimana Eric, a bike rider from Nyarugenge district said, “It’s really overwhelming the way the cost of insurance cards for motorcycles doubled up in less than two years and they didn’t even what to consult us or consider how badly raising a cost will affect us and our families. It’s pretty much high and very uneasy to generate them when you’ve other many expenses aside.”

As Eric said, Initially the cost of the insurance card was 74,000 Rwf annually, for commercial bikes as the non-commercial bikes were priced at 42,000 Frw but they were raised drastically up to 142, 000 Frw per year, two times a business cab’s insurance fee.

The motorists argue that a vehicle that is two-tired, carrying two people should not be charged a price higher than a vehicle that carries up to five or more people in order to have an insurance card.

Concerning the decisions taken from the meeting, Mr. Eric revealed that most of the motorists are quite kept in a doubt, regarding on implementation of those decisions plus the time for which they will remain in the effort.

“We are really desperate and confused about the kind of interest they expect in sparing us all our charges. We are very fearful that they shall return those charges in the future or bring about what’s literally harder than them. Who knows!” Eric added.

This is a way more than once, when motorists indicate their obstacles, some relevant to financial mismanagement of their cooperatives, their confrontations against a price counter as well as a cost of insurance card, even though the government does its very best to seek for their proper resolutions.

Uwimana Hirwa Félix