The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) has made new decisions regarding the local representative, application regime, samples, and processing time for the Type Approval process.

Local Representative should be one of the following:

• Registered local or international manufacturers
• Authorized importers and distributors
• Licensed operators
• Individuals or companies who wish to import ECE for their own use
• Authorized registered representatives or agents of any of these parties

Application regimes:

• Simplified Type Approval regime
• Standard Type Approval regime

The simplified process is not yet implemented as RURA currently does not have any mutual recognition agreements with other countries.

Samples:

• One normal sample will be required regardless of the Type Approval regime.
• The sample will not be returned.
• Waiver of the sample can be requested depending on the nature or size of the sample.

Processing time:

• Under the standard Type Approval regime, the processing period is ten working days from the date the complete application package has been submitted.
• Type Approval for any particular ECE is still granted with an unlimited period of time.

These new decisions have been approved, but have not yet been implemented. The date of implementation should be released soon.