Moving to Kigali

Today we look at moving to Kigali in Rwanda from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. We highlight cost of living and other major differences likely to be experienced in our series of short blogs on moving between different international locations.
In Kigali people speak Kinyarwanda (official), French (official), English (official) and Swahili. In Port Moresby people speak English, Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu.

Kigali is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. Port Moresby is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. Kigali is the economic, cultural, and transport hub of Rwanda. The city is often covered by a smoke haze that is created by the numerous small fires lit beside the road or in the bush by its inhabitants. The city experiences high levels of rape, robbery, murder and large areas of the city are controlled by gangs.

The overall cost of living rank in Kigali is 182 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with middle cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Port Moresby to Kigali will experience a change in cost of living of -27.1%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Kigali is ranked as an extreme hardship location with a hardship index of 40% the same as Port Moresby.

Source: Cost of living Kigali Rwanda as at July 2011.