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Money & duty free for Rwanda

Currency information: 

Rwanda Franc (RWF) = 100 centimes. Notes are in denominations of RWF 5,000, 2,000, 1,000 and 500. Coins are in denominations of RWF100, 50, 20, 10 and 5.

Credit cards: 

Accepted at only a few hotels in Kigali. MasterCard and Visa are the preferred cards.

ATM: 

International Visa cards are accepted at Ecobank head office in Kigali and at Kigali airport. They can also be used at Access Bank head office in Kigali. However, these ATMs are affected by power cuts. It is best to travel with US dollars, some banks won’t accept sterling.

Travellers cheques: 

It may be difficult to change traveller's cheques outside Kigali.

Banking hours: 

Mon-Fri 0800-1200 and 1400-1700, Sat 0800-1200.

Currency restriction: 

The import and export of local currency is limited to RWF5000. The import and export of foreign currency is unlimited, but must be declared upon arrival and exchanged within 8 days.

Rwanda duty free

The following items may be imported into Rwanda by persons over 16 years of age without incurring customs duty:

• Two cartons of cigarettes and 2L of alcoholic beverages.

Note: Game trophies can only be exported with special permission of the Game Department.

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