Across Rwanda, the sight of “Irembo Agent” is common. If you cannot obtain a government online service by doing it yourself, you simply walk to nearest shop
Rwanda has spent years building a reputation as one of Africa’s leaders in digital government. Citizens can apply for documents, pay fees and access public services through online platforms.
Yet only 11% of government services are fully digitised from beginning to end, according to the latest Rwanda Governance Scorecard (RGS).
The figure highlights a gap between making services available online and ensuring that citizens can complete entire transactions digitally, without paperwork, manual processing or visits to government offices.
The findings come as Cabinet calls for coordinated action to address governance gaps and improve public service delivery.
At its meeting on October 26, 2026, chaired by President Paul Kagame at Urugwiro Village, Cabinet reviewed key findings of the RGS and the Citizen Report Card (CRC).
The communiqué said the assessments “reaffirm Rwanda’s strong governance performance,” while directing relevant institutions to take “coordinated, measurable actions” to address identified gaps and improve service delivery and citizen satisfaction.
The 11% digitisation figure is one of the challenges facing that effort.
The digital reputation
The Irembo platform has made it easier for citizens to access government services, while electronic payments through Mobile Money and Airtel Money have reduced reliance on cash.
But a service is not fully digitised simply because an application can be submitted online.
A citizen may apply and pay electronically, only for officials to print the application, process it manually across departments and require the applicant to collect the final document in person.
The latest scorecard does not detail all the services included in the 11% figure, but the result points to the challenge of connecting government systems and eliminating manual procedures.
The figure was the lowest of all variables assessed in the 13th edition of the scorecard. It also comes as the Quality of Service Delivery pillar recorded the largest decline among the eight governance pillars, falling from 71.73% to 68.48% and ranking last.
The scorecard identified two particularly weak variables: fully digitised government services, at 11%, and the inflation-rate indicator, at 28.57%.
The gaps remain
Despite the low end-to-end digitisation figure, satisfaction with some digital platforms remains relatively high.
The scorecard’s Service Delivery through ICT indicator scored 60.98%. Satisfaction with Irembo services stood at 81.8%, although it declined by 5.6 percentage points from the previous edition. Satisfaction with electronic payments through Mobile Money and Airtel Money reached 76.5%.
However, satisfaction with online court case filing fell to 65.4%, a decline of 13.6 percentage points. Radio communication recorded 70.2% satisfaction.
The contrast between Irembo’s satisfaction rating and the 11% digitisation figure reflects two different measures. Citizens may find an online platform useful even when parts of the administrative process behind it remain manual.
The scorecard calls for improvements in the accessibility, reliability and user experience of ICT-enabled services.
Government works to connect services
This is the Rwanda Governance Scorecard pillar performance (ranking) from the 1st to the 13th editions, from 2010-2026
The scorecard says government institutions are compiling a standardised inventory of public services to establish how many are digitised and identify remaining gaps.
Committees involving the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, the Ministry of Public Service and Labour, the Rwanda Governance Board and the Rwanda Standards Board have adopted the RS 600:2025 standard and trained staff on defining and classifying services.
A review reduced the inventory of local government services from 235 entries to 60 standardised services. The aim is to create a database showing the digitisation status of government services and provide a baseline for measuring progress.
Other initiatives seek to connect systems that previously operated separately. Licensing services involving the Rwanda Standards Board, the Rwanda Environment Management Authority and the Rwanda Inspectorate, Competition and Consumer Protection Authority are being reengineered, with 22 licensing services set to be consolidated into one end-to-end service.
In land administration, the Land Administration Information System has been linked to the Integrated Financial Management Information System, the Rwanda Revenue Authority and Irembo, bringing 12 land services online, according to the scorecard.
Such integration is important because citizens often need approvals or information from several institutions to complete a single transaction.
The 2029 target
The government’s Second National Strategy for Transformation (NST2) targets at least 90% citizen satisfaction with public service delivery by 2029.
Yet satisfaction remains below that level in several sectors, including land, environment and settlement at 50.9%, agriculture at 53.7%, infrastructure at 63.5% and health at 63.9%.
Digitisation alone will not guarantee satisfaction. Processing times, staff responsiveness, system reliability and the quality of services delivered will also determine whether citizens experience meaningful improvements.
The scorecard’s digitisation figure is based on 2024 data, meaning it may not capture subsequent progress. The report also does not provide a detailed breakdown of the services assessed or the precise criteria used to determine whether they are fully digitised.
These details will matter as the government measures progress and sets priorities.
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