The National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) has said that it will modify the content on the face of the coins that are in denominations of Rwf20 and Rwf5 to conform to the revised Central Bank law.

Ambassador Claver Gatete, the Deputy Governor of BNR said that the old coins will soon cease to be legal tender. The Central Bank law was revised in November 2007.

Last week Cabinet endorsed a Presidential Order issuing the new Rwf20 and Rwf5 coins as legal tender in Rwanda.
"We are under great pressure because these coins are mainly used by traders especially the rural community where small things are traded,” Gatete said.

He added  that these coins are out of stock because old coins collected from the market are not taken back into circulation. He assured that the new ones are available in the stock and waiting for the decree to be published.

"We hope the decree will be published soon, coins are more preferable in money circulation because they last longer than banknotes.

"With the new coins all the Rwandan currencies will be conforming to the new law and this is long overdue.”

The current Rwf20 brass coin and the Rwf5 in bronze are among the series Rwf1 to Rwf50 coin denominations that were issued in 2004 (dated 2003) as well as the bimetallic Rwf100 coin that was introduced in 2008 (dated 2007).

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