When payment is part of a patient’s care journey, it should feel like a natural step that helps them move smoothly from one service point to the next and not a roadblock. The true value of a better payment system is often seen in the moments it removes: one less return to the cashier, one less queue to rejoin, one less delay before care continues, and one less mismatch for a finance team to resolve.

For Rwanda’s public health facilities, payment collection had become more than a financial transaction. It shaped how patients moved through the facility, how long patients and caretakers waited in payment queues, how heavy the burden felt for cashiers behind the counter, and how clearly a facility could see, at a glance, what had been collected, cleared, and settled.

Most Health facilities already accept cash and Mobile Money payments. The challenge was that nearly every payment had to pass through a single cashier point. A patient would queue to pay for registration, see the clinician, then, if a lab test was needed, queue all over again to pay for that too. It was a stop-and-start journey in a place where flow matters most.

Behind the counter, cashiers and finance teams had to manage collections across different payment methods, records, and paper trails, tracking down mismatches, confirming payments, and reconciling what had been received against what had been settled. This process was time-consuming, stressful, and prone to error.

IremboPay was introduced to ease this journey on both sides of the counter; it turned payment into a prompt, not a puzzle. Instead of patients fumbling with code numbers or double-checking amounts, IremboPay simply asks them to confirm the correct payment for the right service, ensuring every franc lands in the right facility account, for the right reason.

In July 2025, in partnership with the Ministry of Health in Rwanda, IremboPay became the unified payment platform for all public health facilities—from village health centers to district hospitals and national teaching hospitals. Eleven months on, it has scaled across the health system and begun to improve the daily payment workflow for patients, cashiers, finance teams, and health system managers alike.

From Early Adoption to National Scale

The rollout began modestly. In its first full month, July 2025, Ministry of Health facilities processed 1,863 transactions worth under one million RWF through IremboPay.

Less than a year later, the picture had changed dramatically. By just the first sixteen days of June 2026, facilities had already processed 321,868 transactions worth 297.8 million RWF — surpassing every previous full month before June was even complete.

Across the 2025 launch half-year, 43 facilities transacted, generating 85,207 transactions and roughly 59 million RWF. In the first half of 2026, 248 facilities transacted, generating 839,994 transactions and 811 million RWF. As of June 16, 2026, 333 facilities had been onboarded, and 255 had already collected through IremboPay.

Cumulatively, the platform has processed close to one million transactions and is approaching one billion RWF in health-sector collections.

This growth shows that IremboPay has moved beyond early adoption. It is now operating at a national scale, supporting different payment realities across the health system — from health centers managing frequent day-to-day payments to district and teaching hospitals handling more complex payment journeys and larger collection flows.

The spread has also been enabled by a standardized onboarding model. Each new facility goes live through one shared process, on a platform available in Kinyarwanda, English, and French, licensed by the National Bank of Rwanda, and a PCI-DSS-compliant platform with real-time analytics from day one

“At CHUB, the integration of IremboPay has created a measurable improvement in how patients move through the hospital. Reducing the median patient payment waiting time from 72 minutes to 5 minutes is not just an efficiency gain; it directly improves the care experience by removing delays at a critical point in the patient journey.”

— Christian Ngarambe
Director, University Teaching Hospital of Butare

Improving the Patient Payment Experience

At the hospital level, one of the clearest changes is the reduction in back-and-forth movement during the patient payment journey.

Previously, a patient could queue at the cashier to make a registration payment before consultation, receive care, and then be sent back to make another payment before continuing to the next service point. Each return meant rejoining the payment queue, adding time to the visit, and increasing the chance of payment errors.

With IremboPay, the payment step can happen closer to where the service is provided, at the right moment, for the right service, and with fewer chances for error. Patients or caretakers are prompted to approve the correct payment, helping ensure funds go to the right facility account and for the right amount.

The impact is practical: fewer returns to the cashier, shorter queues, fewer payment errors, and a smoother payment experience for patients and caretakers.

“I didn’t have to leave where I was. I paid right there, and the process of receiving care became faster and more convenient.”

Patient, University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB)

Turning Hours into Minutes: Improving Efficiency for Health Facilities

For health facilities, the change is felt in both time and control.

Before IremboPay, cashiers and finance teams often had to compare balances, confirm payments, trace mismatches, and reconcile collections across different payment methods and records. In high-traffic hospitals, daily reconciliation that previously took hours can now take less than an hour.

With IremboPay, supported payment channels feed into a more unified collection flow. Facilities can better see what has been paid, what is pending, and what is expected to be settled. This gives cashiers, accountants, facility leaders, and Ministry of Health teams clearer visibility into collections and a stronger audit trail.

That efficiency matters most as volume grows. In the week beginning June 8, 2026, IremboPay processed 153,353 transactions and 142.3 million RWF in collections. Under the previous model, this level of activity would have created more reconciliation pressure and longer closing hours. With IremboPay, facilities can handle higher volumes without increasing the operational burden at the same pace.

“At Kinyinya Health Center, we began using IremboPay in October 2025, and the system is now running smoothly. It has improved the patient experience by reducing waiting time and eliminating repeated cashier visits for each service.

The system has also improved daily visibility by helping us compare services provided against payments received, identify discrepancies quickly, and resolve issues promptly. By showing patients the exact amount to pay, IremboPay has enhanced transparency, confidence, and satisfaction.”

Leonidas Batamugira
Head of Kinyinya Health Center

A Journey Still Expanding

The strongest patient experience impact is currently at the hospital level, where payments can happen closer to the point of care, and patients do not always need to return to the cashier for each payment step.

Across the wider health system, the journey is still expanding. The full patient experience impact is not yet uniform across every facility, but the direction is clear: IremboPay is reducing queues, reducing payment errors, improving reconciliation, strengthening financial control, and giving facilities better visibility over collections.

More Than Payment Collection

In eleven months, IremboPay has helped health-sector collections become more unified, more visible, and easier to manage across hundreds of facilities.

The numbers show the scale: from 1,863 transactions in July 2025 to 321,868 transactions in the first sixteen days of June 2026; from 43 transacting facilities in the launch half-year to 248 transacting facilities in the first half of 2026; and close to one billion RWF processed for the health sector.

But the real impact is seen in the experience behind those numbers.

Patients and caretakers spend less time moving between service points and cashier desks. Cashiers handle fewer manual checks. Finance teams close the day faster and with more confidence. Health facilities can better track collections and settlements. Ministry of Health teams gain clearer visibility across onboarded facilities.

IremboPay is not digitizing the health service itself. It is strengthening the payment collection layer that supports care delivery, making payments easier to complete, easier to track, and easier to trust.