Due to the increase of car theft crimes, car rental in Africa may require paperwork and a few extra costs. Every country in Africa has its own regulations and policies of who is to rent a car or drive so as a way to avoid a few irregularities that may happen when a wrong person rents a car. Here we bring a few things that one will have to meet when renting a car in Africa.
Identification and driver’s licenses
Whenever, you get to the counter of car rental, they will require you to issue out your driver’s license and identification i.e. passport or national Identity card. These are mandatory, there is no way you can dodge them when renting a car and failure to do so you will be deprived of renting a car. These documents are supposed to be valid and also an original copy is needed for the look on and then the photocopy is retained by the car rental company.
For the case of the driver’s license one should have an international driving license or it should be translated to English from your local driving authority.
These documents are asked of the client to know who you are and also know whether you are eligible to drive a car so it should not be taken as a stumbling block to car renters.
Age Limitations
Age limitations vary among countries in Africa but most African countries has 18 years as the minimum age of renting a car as this is the minimum age of driving a car in most countries. For the maximum age, it is not clearly stipulated but in common sense someone who is above 70 years should not be driving a car on his/her due to the factor that car driving requirement some physical ability and stability and we think that by the age of 70 years someone physicality has somehow be weakened so he/she cannot handle driving a car for that long.
In Africa, people usually rent cars to tour around various tourism destinations and these are normally located far away from the city so one has to travel a long distance to enjoy these tourist attractions and for the old people who are above 70 years, it is really a challenge to driving long distances on their own.
Crossing Borders
There are travelers who rent cars to tour around the various countries of Africa. In east Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya the borders are fading as these have an east Africa visa whereby if one acquires it from one of the countries, he/she is able to visit any other countries without any documentation. However, when you are crossing over with rental car then you have to issue a photocopy of the registration book of the vehicle you are driving and an acceptance letter from the rental company to letting you to cross the vehicle to another country. With the acceptance letter and east African visa in your possession, you can easily crossover to Uganda or Kenya when you rent a car from Rwanda.
