East African countries agree on a single tourists’ visa

Representative from Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya came together and agreed to start using a single tourist visa which is intended to ease and promote tourism among the three states. This is the latest of the very many decisions the three countries are finalizing without their two other fellow EAC members namely Tanzania and Burundi.

At the beginning of last week, Ben Kagarama who is the leader of RRA made it public that Rwanda will implement a Single Customs Territory (SCT) with Uganda and Kenya where all customs on incoming goods to any of the three countries will be handled once at the port of entry which is Mombasa in Kenya. Meanwhile the decision to issue a single visa to tourists followed a two-day meeting held in Kigali Rwanda from 1 – 2 August and was attended by delegates from the three countries.

In the meeting, all these delegates agreed to charge $100 which is about Frw 60,000 per tourist who will be visiting the three countries for up to 90 days in any of the three countries and this money is to be paid at the point of entry into any of the three countries. This sort of arrangement will start in January, 2014 and in their next meeting scheduled for next month, they will discuss the design of the special visa.

Jacqueline Muhongayire, who is the new Minister to East African Community Affairs, said that the $100 will be applied to foreigners from outside the three states who are intending to tour more than one country while tourists  who are only interested in visiting Rwanda  will still pay $50 for Uganda and Kenya, $30 for Rwanda. And at the end of the day, each of the 3 countries will claim $30 from the Single Visa fees while the balance of $10 will be set aside for technical operations.

Muhongayire also said when commenting about Burundi and Tanzania that said these two countries weren’t and are not excluded therefore they can  decide to join when they find the decision significant for them .

Meanwhile, James Musoni, the Minister of Local Government said that the single tourist visa will improve on the social unity among the three states and they will work hand in hand to improve and protect the tourism industry. Rica Rwigamba who is the head of tourism and conservation at RDB, has encouraged the private sector to take the opportunity and invest in tourism, an industry that earned Rwanda over $280 million USD in 2012 and targets over $315 million this year therefore they can expect to collect a lot of income from the industry.