A Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed between with an anonymous distributer and World moto Inc, a leader in advanced and state of the art solutions for motorcycle taxi gadgets.
Rwanda would soon introduce meters with the vision of increasing the security of operators of motorcycles, also known as Taxi-Moto.
The estimated cost of one meter would be $120 (~Rwf90,000). It would take a minimum 45 days to pull together this amount. Simultaneously pay their bank loan of Rwf5,000 to Rwf7,000 daily deposit to motorcycle owner.
“We don’t have any information yet but the price is too high for a moto operator. We suggest negotiations to bring it down to, say, Rwf50,000, which is affordable if you consider the daily income of our members,” said Tharcien Musabyiyaremye, the chairman of Remera Taxi Moto Cooperative
However in actual fact is that some of the taxi-moto operators are unaware of the soon to be introduced moto meter.
Rwanda has around 90,000 taxi-moto which are active. To invest in the metering they would need roughly around Rwf9 billion. Which means that would have to work twice to maintain the cost of living and operating the business.
Paul Giles, CEO of World Moto, stated that there has been a continuing increase in sales inquiries from operators around the world as well as requests from distributors looking to service the growing demand.
With features such as GPS tracking, black box and mileage gauge, the moto-meter is expected to assist motorbike transporters to charge accordingly and also track stolen bikes and the sales will begin in the capital Kigali, where riders operate under tight government regulation and have a close relationship with the state security apparatus.
