Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) Commissioner General, Bizimana Ruganintwali Pascal, today received a delegation from the Embassy of Norway in Tanzania, consisting of Olav Lundstøl, Country Economist, and Ms. Eli Marie Smedsrud, Second Secretary Political and Economic Affairs, to discuss the progress of cooperation through the Norwegian Tax Administration (NTA).

Norway is represented in Rwanda by the embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, following a lengthy period of representation by an embassy in Kampala, Uganda. 

During the visit on Thursday, March 14, 2024, Ruganintwali appreciated the Embassy’s support towards the ongoing RRA - NTA cooperation, which complements and supports the outstanding recommendations of the ongoing institutional reforms.

“This timely cooperation output is reflected in our mid-term and end-of-year institutional performance reports. It is worth noting that NTA’s support is tremendously improving RRA’s service delivery capability, audit efficiency, without forgetting the digitalization of continuous reforms,” Ruganintwali said.

“It is also worth noting that the existing cooperation has enhanced shared experiences between the management of the two institutions on strategic tax administration priorities,” he added.

The ongoing cooperation was established after a January 2018 meeting between President Paul Kagame and former Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg in Davos, to elaborate on areas of cooperation. The cooperation was initiated in September 2019, and an institutional cooperation agreement was signed in 2022, covering the period from July 2022 to June 2026.

Olav Lundstøl appreciated the achievements of this cooperation and reiterated Norway’s willingness to take the cooperation to another level. “The cooperation with RRA is one of the most exemplary, and RRA is leading the way in many areas,” he said.

In improving taxpayer services capacity, many things were achieved, including call center staff training, call center management, and improving the customer relationship management system.

RRA’s website has been improved to comply with the international standards on Web Content Accessibility to meet user expectations. The taxpayers' user journeys in accessing RRA systems were improved, resulting in the automation of some services, with the most recent being motor vehicle ownership transfer.

RRA has been undertaking usability testing to gain insight into services delivered, and further website improvements are underway.

In improving capacity in ICT and digitalization, RRA staff benefited from learning from the best of NTA on IT infrastructure, sharing knowledge and experience, specifically in the installation of different tools needed and how to use them.

There is also cooperation in using Agile software development to develop different IT applications.

On the audit side, the cooperation focused on developing improved capacity within selected areas of audit, starting with banking and construction.

RRA and NTA have also agreed to strategically fast-track cooperation performance year - on -year, by holding annual meetings that assess progress and approve plans for the following year. The previous one was held in Kigali on October 26, 2023, whereas the forthcoming one will be held in Oslo by September 2024.