Safaricom has announced that it is set to lower the cost of calls and roaming rates between Kenya and Rwanda. The new rates take effect from today. The move which comes ahead of the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State initiative dubbed “One Network” set to officially launch in 2015, will see the roaming rates for Safaricom customers visiting Rwanda slashed by 60%, from KES 25 to KES. 10.

Safaricom customers visiting Rwanda will make calls to local Rwandan networks at KES 10, which is a 43% drop from the initial rate of KES 17.50 per min. Customers making international calls from Kenya to Rwanda, and vice versa, will be billed at a rate of KES 10 per min.

“These are the early wins of the joint lobbying initiative between operators in both countries and their respective governments over the last one year. We believe that by having affordable regional calling rates, we will be playing a crucial role in boosting regional commerce and social integration within the EAC”, said Safaricom’s Chief Executive Officer, Bob Collymore.

The announcement follows agreements by the Ministers of Communication in the East African Community to lower roaming taxes within their home networks. The talks commenced after four EAC members had  introduced specific taxes on international calls within their territories. Uganda charged a KES 7 levy. Tanzania KES 10, Rwanda KES 9 and Burundi KES 13.

Collymore explained, “This is a significant milestone towards enabling people within the region enjoy affordable ICT services, in line with other aspirations of developing the EAC to become a formidable economic block within the continent”.

Efforts towards East African Integration have been accelerated in the last year. Last week, Kenya Rwanda and Uganda advertised a tender for a consultant to link their power grids. Tanzania was not part of the agreement to lower roaming taxes mentioned above. It also was not mentioned in the tender agreement to link the power grids. It seems there may be a resurgence of the "coalition of the willing". The coalition of the willing was a term used to describe Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda when their heads of state met last year to accelerate integration agreements. They chose to leave out Tanzania who they considered reluctant to integration efforts.

The first three paragraphs were adapted from biztechafrica.com, you can read their full article here.