Starting July 14, 2026, Rwanda began using a new instant payment system shared across different financial institutions (RNDPS/eKash). eKash is a system that allows customers to send and receive money, as well as make payments across licensed financial institutions, making payment services more accessible, reliable, affordable, and available to everyone.
The National Bank of Rwanda announced that this system is shared among financial institutions and other digital money transfer service providers, and that the fee is very low, at 20 Frw per transaction.
It also provides that the amount transferred must not exceed 10 million Frw per transaction.
These changes are very important for digital money transfers, in a context where each financial institution used to set up its own method of sending or transferring money.
Not only did each institution set up its own method for transferring money, but the cost was also often high when sending money to an account at a different bank than the one you use, or to a phone account.
There were cases where sending money to someone using a different bank required paying at least 1,500 Frw per transaction.
This meant that if you sent money to 10 people a day, at least five times each, you would end up paying over 750,000 Frw just in transfer fees.
Think about businesses, and suppliers of various goods, who carried out transfers to others and incurred losses along the way.
At that time, the trader would have to go to the bank to withdraw cash, choosing to pay in cash or use a cheque to avoid being charged large transfer fees.
Now, through eKash, someone who used to send money to 10 people, at least five times each, will only spend 10,000 Frw.
This is a benefit for those using this payment method, but it will also play a major role in promoting a cashless system in the country.
Economic analyst Habyarimana Straton told IGIHE, which sourced this article from us, that this is a positive step for the country and will make it easier for citizens to transfer money.
He said: “Citizens are now going to benefit from cheaper money transfers, and what I find good about it is that all financial institutions and digital money transfer service providers have embraced using it.”
He explained that this helps the country improve money transfers domestically, ensure reliable data, and helps show how money flows into businesses.
Even so, for someone using the MTN network to transfer money to another MTN user, the fee will remain the same as before.
Habyarimana pointed out that this will give people more choice, unlike before, when the price set by a particular institution simply had to be accepted as it was.
Musugi Jean Pierre, Business Operations Officer at MTN Mobile Money Rwanda Ltd, told IGIHE that the eKash system will help them gain more customers, and that there is no cause for concern regarding pricing.
He said: “I want to assure you there is no problem, eKash will not hold us back, but rather we see it as an added opportunity to reach more people. What we are currently doing is putting effort into encouraging our customers to embrace eKash, because we believe it will help us and will benefit the country’s economy.”
He emphasized that they will continue putting effort into introducing other services that will keep customers using MTN Mobile Money services.
On the other hand, analyst Teddy Kaberuka pointed out that public adoption will lead to an increase in money transfer transactions.
He noted that this is where institutions stand to benefit, from the increased volume of transactions even though the fee per transaction is small.
Digital money transfers are set to see strong adoption
Why is promoting a cashless economy important for the country?
For some time now, Rwanda has been putting effort into digital payments and purchases instead of handling cash, and figures from the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) show that this new approach is increasingly gaining ground among citizens year after year.
The National Bank of Rwanda’s 2024/2025 activity report shows that mobile phone payments rose by 57% in value and 44% in volume, while money transfers via mobile banking rose by 108% in value and 113% in volume.
Digital money transfer services grew sharply, by as much as 301%, equivalent to 37.7 billion Frw.
Habyarimana explained that promoting a cashless system helps the country reduce the amount of banknotes and coins in circulation.
He said: “Printing banknotes and coins costs the country a lot of money. Promoting technology also reduces opportunities for theft, someone carrying cash in hand can be robbed, or counterfeit money can be used. Because it will be cheaper, many people will embrace using technology, which will increase the volume of digital transactions, helping the country achieve its cashless goal.”
Reducing the amount of banknotes and coins the country uses also benefits the economy, since a lot of money is spent every year replacing worn-out notes or printing new ones.
He confirmed that having financial institutions with different systems and varying transfer fees had created some confusion, but unifying this into one system is in the interest of citizens.
Musugi pointed out that financial institutions and digital money transfer providers need to invest further, so that public adoption is matched with quality service.
He stressed that caution is needed to avoid situations where services become slow, unavailable, or fail, especially now that a large number of citizens are turning to this technology.
The adoption of eKash also comes at a time when Rwanda recently approved digital currency, underscoring the continued steps the country is taking to advance digital money transfer technology.