Living in Kigali

I am planning to do an internship in Kigali for the months of June and July 2010. I've read in many threads that life in Kigali isn't cheap. Could someone give me more accurate numbers, especially regarding the price of a room in a shared appartment in Kigali, and food? Are the price comparable to the ones in North America?

Also, any tips for finding cheap tickets from Canada to Rwanda? What I found is about 2200$ for Montreal - Kigali.

Thank you very much for the technical help. If anyone has tips or know someone renting rooms / looking for roommates, I would appreciate to know!

Marie

Hi ,

I am Anh (female) from US. I also will go to Rwanda to do my internship in June and Jul. I have checked some information from the company where I will work for, and know that living expense in Kigali is quite expensive.

• Housing rent is around 200$ - 400$/month for a one bed room shared apt.
• Phone: you can bring your phone there and by a number in Rwanda for just 3$, then Pay as you use
• Bank: you can open a bank account in Rwanda with your passport
• MOney: I am not sure about Canadian dollar, but if you use USD, you must bring the money with series after 2006
• Internet: there is Internet in offices, but there is no wireless in housings. If you want to use INternet, you can buy wireless service from a company and pay around 30$/month
• FLight: I am not sure about flying from Canada, but you can try www.onetravel.com. I bought my flight ticket there. From Washington DC to Kigali and from Capetown to Washington DC for 2,100$

Very nice to know you. Let's keep in touch and see if we can share more information for each other. I'll let you know when I know more information.

Thank you very much cherryaf! that's pretty much the info I was expecting... it seems quite expensive, but at the same time the internship i would do interests me a lot. I still have to do the numbers and see..

have you found an apt yet?

cheers

marie

If you are looking to save on airfare, flying to and from Entebbe (Uganda), and then taking a bus to Kigali (something like 5-6 hours), would probably save you several hundred U.S. dollars. Flying into Nairobi would save you a fair amount more, but (at least when I researched this two years ago) it would take several days to get from there to Kigali by bus.

HI

Have you been in Rwanda yet? I am here already. I work for a project of USAID, so they pay for my housing. I live in a house near MTN center. And it's true that life here is crazily expensive. I can't imagine that it's even more expensive than in the US

If you are here already, hope to see u soon one day. I am quite boring of living alone here, and getting out to know more people.

Anh

Hi Marie and Anh,

I, too, am coming to Kigali in July for an internship. Marie - I was wondering if you were able to find housing or came across any good resources for figuring it out?

I was planning to stay in a hotel, but the prices are too high and an apartment would be ideal.

Thanks!
Kalina

Hi all,

I just arrived in Kigali and am also doing an internship, also searching for housing. If anyone has any luck in finding relatively cheap accomodations, it would be awesome if you could share how you went about doing that. I'll do the same if I have any luck.

Best,
Chris

After talking with several people this weekend it seems like the easiest thing to do is join the Yahoo group www.kigalilife.com. It's basically craigslist for Kigali. Hope this helps, good luck everyone!

Best,
Chris

Note on #3:

The bus from Nairobi takes "24 hours", and it is brutal.

Hello all,

I´m also moving to kigali soon to work there and I have lots of questions but with the info you already posted I got most of the answers I need.

I have no problem with the housing for the first month, my company will pay for the hotel but after that I will have to find my own place. I was thinking to share a place but I still have no idea about the part of the city I should choose. My first idea is to live as close to the center as possible since I dont wish to be lock at home during my free time. I also wonder how is the living there, more exactly how feasible is to keep a western quality of living there.
I was also concern how easy is to get those pills to protect from malaria on the city and what could be the price.

Finally If anyone wish to share experience about the city would be cool.

No answers??? :(

Within a month after moving to Kigali you will know the scene very well and can answer your own questions.

I lived in Rwanda for 2 years, in Kigali, and never was on prophylaxis or had problems with Malaria, and typically what people do who live in Africa long term, is do all reasonable cheap precautions (net, spray, travel to less malaria prone areas), then if you get it (as I did last year in Malawi), you take a locally purchased Coartum based drug. You can also bring in the drug if you prefer. Price is usually about $5-20 depending on location and quality.

Tomspain, where to live in Kigali is very difficult say since you don't indicate where your work would be. People have different preferences, depending on the prices, type of residential areas, type of houses etc. Expats tend to live mostly between Kimihurura and Nyarutarama. When you arrive Kigali, you just go around and visit different areas and go to see different houses which are available.

Thank you for the answer.

Could you give me any advice about where to look for house, my first idea is to try to be close to the center since im not planing to have a car there, but i dont know if it would be too expensive... Any idea?

Well... I will have to go to the airport to work, but that is not a really big deal since as I said before the company will arrange daily transport for that... im more worried about safe areas and also been close to shops, market and socialicing city spots.

Many areas in Kigali fulfill your criteria. Kigali in general is safe. The centre would be the furthest point to the airport. Shops depend on which kind of shops. Local shops, alimentation, are everywhere. Imported goods you can find in Nakumatt in the center or Frulep or in MTN center in Nyarutarama. Also some small decent shops in Remera close to the airport.

There is a good market in Kimironko not far away from the airport

Restaurants are mostly in the centre, Kimihurura and Nyarutarama.

Why don't you just wait until you get to kigali and see what is there? In any case, there is such a big variation in the quality of houses that it is better to see many to ensure you have found what you like. I would not worry about housing.

Thanks a lot for the answers, I should move there next week so lets see what i find down there :P

regards!