Mutesi, a Nyabugogo-based businesswoman, has been finding it hard to communicate with her suppliers in the provinces, which has sometimes caused delays in the delivery of her merchandise.

The Tigo Rwanda customer will, however, now find it easy to coordinate the delivery of her goods following the slashing of call rates to Rwf35 per minute across all networks. According to company officials, calls to the USA, India, China and Canada will also cost Rwf35 per minute.

Announcing the new tariff in Kigali on Tuesday, Yaw Ankoma Agyapong, the Tigo Rwanda chief commercial officer, said the tariff reduction was "a response to our customer needs for a product that offers great value and also enable them to stay in touch with friends and family here in Rwanda and abroad.” He added that in addition to the reduced call tariffs, Tigo customers will also be able to send an SMS to any local mobile network for only Rwf15.

Before the call rate cut, subscribers paid Rwf40 per minute for local calls; international calls were at Rwf51 a minute and SMS sending cost Rwf26 each. 

MTN charges Rwf51 per minute for calls to the USA, India, China and Canada, while it costs Airtel customers Rwf29. For local calls both on and off, MTN charges Rwf45 per minute. Tigo has 3.2 million subscribers, MTN has 4.07 million clients and 1.59 million users are for Airtel,

RURA figures for December 2016 indicate.