The first post office opened its doors on 18th September 1922 in Kigali. At that time, the Postal Administration of Rwanda was merged to the Belgian Congo one and the Headquarters was in LEOPOLDVILLE, capital city of the Belgian Congo (now Kinshasa , the Democratic Republic of the Congo Capital City). This situation remained the same until the period of independence of Rwanda, which ushered in the Ministry of Information, Posts and Telecommunications on 26th October 1961.
Until the independence of Rwanda, the Post Office was administered by colonial rule. By the Brussels Protocol on March 31, 1962 the Belgian government decided to dissolve the entity previously known under the name of "Post of Ruanda-Urundi" and devoted the Rwandan Post as an autonomous entity from April 1, 1962.
As Rwanda prepared to recover its Independence, the Cabinet Reshuffle of 18th May 1962 removed the portfolio of Information from the former Ministry of Information, Posts and Telecommunications, and the latter became the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
When National Independence was declared on 1st July 1962, the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was reattached to the Ministry of Public Works and Mechanization to form one Ministry designated as the Ministry of Public Works and Equipment on 6th February 1963. This Ministry counted, among its attributions, "the management of the Postal Operations".
The cabinet reshuffle of 6th January 1964 detached certain attributions from the former Ministry of Public Works and Equipment in order to constitute the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications which had, among its attributions, the "Postal Services".
One should also note that on 6th April 1963 Rwanda was admitted as a member of the Universal Postal Union.
Having understood the importance of the country’s postal service, the United Nations Organization quickly gave considerable assistance by constructing the Kigali Posts and Telecommunications building that still stands today, which was inaugurated in 1965.
In 1986, following pressure from the economic and international financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who demanded the withdrawal of the state of the productive sectors and trade, the Government decided to give more autonomy to the postal and telecommunications sectors by creating two entities of a commercial nature dealing respectively with these two services. Thus, the National Post Office was established on March 11, 1992.
This public institution was placed under the administrative supervision of the Ministry having postal matters in its duties (currently the Ministry of Youth and ICT) and is administered as any other business, by a Board of Directors, the day-to-day management being entrusted to a Director General.