The Road Maintenance Fund (RMF) is an institution established by the law No.49/2013 of 28/06/2013 and published in the official gazette of the Republic of Rwanda, to ensure collection and funding for the maintenance of road networks in Rwanda.
Ever since its establishment in 1998, the Road Maintenance Fund has achieved significant progress with regards to funding road maintenance, in spite of limited resources currently available.
From the time of its creation in 1998 until now, RMF has recorded significant achievements in terms of roads maintenance and bridge rehabilitation.
The current revenues of the Road Fund are derived from:
(i) a petrol and diesel levy (at present FRW 115.00 Rwf per litre (€ 0.131) for both petrol and diesel), which is about 69.4 % of the revenues,
(ii) a road toll (based on COMESA regulations) charged on foreign heavy vehicles (29.6 % of fund revenues), and
(iii) a number of other sources (mainly fines paid for overloading vehicles and for contravening the traffic law). These other sources generate about 1 % of the total revenues.
Revenues from fuel levy and road toll levied on foreign registered vehicles are collected by Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) and transferred into the Road Maintenance Fund account held in the Central bank of Rwanda (BNR).
The Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) is responsible for the overall formulation of policies for the road sector, as well as the implementation of road sector strategies (maître d’ouvrage). Formally it is responsible for the overall management of the classified road network. In line with government policy of decentralisation, district roads management is being handed over to the districts. It is in this regard, that the urban roads in Kigali are under the responsibility of Kigali City Council. The management of the rural feeder roads (non-classified) is vested in the Districts. This implies that two ministries are involved in the management of road sub-sector today, viz. MININFRA and MINALOC, which governs the districts and the City of Kigali.