The Rwandan franc

What the central bank law says about the franc

Law No. 48/2017 of 23 September 2017, governing the National Bank of Rwanda, sets out the currency in a handful of articles. The bank issues notes and coins on behalf of the state and publishes their features in the Official Gazette. A note counts as legal tender only if it carries the signatures of the governor and the deputy governor. Notes and coins issued by the bank are the sole legal tender in Rwanda, and any obligation made in the country is taken to be in francs unless a law or a lawful agreement says otherwise.

Notes are legal tender without limit. Coins are not. A creditor may refuse more than a hundred times a coin's face value in any one type, although the bank, public cashiers and deposit-taking institutions must accept coins without limit. When the bank demonetises a note or coin, it publishes the date in the Official Gazette and the media.

The foreign exchange market sets the franc's value, within a system the bank establishes. If economic, financial or monetary conditions threaten a depreciation, the law allows a Presidential Order, at the bank's request, to fix the rate for a set period.

Which currencies came before the franc

Belgian forces occupied Rwanda in 1916 and the Belgian Congo franc replaced the German East African rupie, and Rwanda kept using the Belgian Congo's currency until 1960, when the Rwanda and Burundi franc took over and ran on past independence in 1962.

The first notes were provisional. They were Rwanda and Burundi notes, still bearing their original dates and signatures, handstamped for the 20 to 100 franc values or embossed for the 500 and 1,000. Regular issues in the same values followed, dated from 1964 to 1976.

How the notes and coins changed

The first coins of 1964 were 1, 5 and 10 francs. Aluminium arrived for the 1 franc in 1969 and for new ½ and 2 franc pieces in 1970. Brass 20 and 50 franc coins replaced the notes of those values in 1977, and a 5,000 franc note followed in 1978. A new series of 1 to 50 franc coins came out in 2004. In 2008 a bimetallic 100 franc coin, a nickel-plated steel ring around a copper-plated steel centre, replaced the 100 franc note, which lost legal tender status on 31 December 2009.

The first 2,000 franc note appeared in mid December 2007. Redesigns followed. A 500 franc note of 24 September 2013 showed cows and students working on XO laptops. The 2,000 and 5,000 of December 2014 and the 1,000 of October 2015 dropped the French descriptions. New 500 and 1,000 notes followed on 11 February 2019, with the 500 turned brown so it could be told apart from the 1,000.

In September 2024 the bank began issuing new 2,000 and 5,000 notes designed and made by De La Rue, which circulate beside the older notes of the same values. The violet 2,000 shows Lake Kivu on the front and coffee beans on the back, and the lilac 5,000 shows the Kigali Convention Centre and traditional Rwandan baskets.

Why the East African shilling has not arrived

Rwanda belongs to the East African Community, and a proposal exists for a common currency, a new East African shilling, for its members. The target date was the end of 2012, but as of March 2025 the currency had not been introduced, delayed by uneven economic development among the member states.