Florida Mukanyangezi, 46, has been living with her husband in a rented house for more than 15 years in Cyinyana Cell, Gishari Sector in Rwamagana District.

At some point in her life, she was not able to pay rent anymore, and Gishari Sector paid rent for the disadvantaged family for more than a year, before they listed them as people who were in need of their own houses.

Mukanyangezi and her family are one of 159 needy families across 14 Rwamagana District sectors who on National Heroes Day were given houses. Most of the houses were constructed by residents through the monthly community work known as Umuganda.

“It is so significant to get a home on Heroes’ Day,” Mukanyangezi said, “When RPF Inkotanyi liberated Kigali [in 1994], they spoke on Radio Rwanda that, ‘Rwandans should get back to their homes, what we want is unity, peace and security,’” she recalls. More

The Kigali Green City project has received its first capital injection from the German Government through KFW Development Bank worth €10 million (Approximately Rwf 10 billion).

The German envoy to Rwanda Thomas Kurz and the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Uzziel Ndagijimana signed an agreement approving the financing on Friday 31st January.

This is Germany’s first capital injection into the venture with another €20 million expected in the coming days.

The Green City Kigali is a model green city to be developed on 620ha in Kinyinya Sector, Gasabo District at an estimated $1.5 billion.

The model city will be a pilot project in green urbanization and will serve to establish the viability of green cities in Rwanda and possible replication across the country. More

Faith-based organisations have donated land to government where thousands of classrooms are to be constructed beginning this academic year.

The clerics and representatives of the Ministry of Education, announced this after an official consent form signing yesterday in Kigali.

The development is a response to the recently signed $200 million (180bn) project between the World Bank and the Government that is expected to advance quality of education through a wide range of interventions including constructing more classrooms.

During the event, officials also argued that availing land will help to address overcrowding in schools, long distances made by students to school, shortage of extra-curricular activities resources, and high student-to-teacher ratio among other factors that affect education quality. More

The Ministry of Infrastructure has revealed that at least 35 hectares in Remera, in which Amahoro National Stadium and Kigali Arena are located will get a facelift so as to produce Remera Sports Hub.

At a press conference on January 29, Amb.Claver Gatete, the Minister for Infrastructure said activities to upgrade the area into a Modern Sports Center are expected to start this year.

He added that after the construction of Kigali Arena which complies with international standards, the surrounding facilities will get a facelift and be turned into a Sports Hub.

Kigali Arena, is an indoor stadium, which has a sitting capacity of about 10,000 people and is among Africa’s top 10 indoor sports venues and the biggest in East Africa. It has been used for the Basketball Africa League Qualifiers and music concerts since it was constructed last year.More

Preparations to rebury victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Kayonza District is well underway as upgrading of Mukarange Genocide Memorial nears completion.

According to the district mayor, Jean Claude Murenzi, the site, which will have the capacity to hold the remains of 40,000 victims, cost more than Rwf234 million.

Murenzi said upgrading the memorial site was in last fiscal year’s targets, but bringing in other necessary things was planned for the current year.

“We have finished preparing bodies for reburial, we are now in the process of buying coffins, and reburying the bodies in the new site,” he explained.

Didace Ndindabahizi, chairperson of Ibuka, an umbrella organisation of Genocide survivors’ associations in the district, told The New Times that the works are in three phases, the first being construction of the site’s main building where victims will be reburied.More

Ruhengeri Referral Hospital will effective next month start undergoing a major infrastructure upgrade which will see almost all the structures of the hospital rebuilt from scratch.

The hospital was too old, having been built in 1939 during colonial era.

The facility was too dilapidated especially the section of patients’ wards and medics’ offices, a situation which many patients have partly blamed for the endemic poor service delivery.

The hospital is located in Musanze town centre and it is both a referral facility and the only district hospital in the district and it serves a population of over 400,000 with 16 health Centers.

The upgrade has been in pipeline for a number of years now, according to officials.More

Ten per cent of the Kigali city’s commercial real estate developers are seeking government’s intervention to improve the viability of their projects, industry players heard yesterday.

This was revealed during a public lecture organised by the City of Kigali under the theme, ‘the dynamics of the commercial real estate market in Kigali’.

During the event, that brought together city authorities and stakeholders in the real estate sector, among others, a survey that was carried out on the real estate market within Kigali was presented.

The survey was carried out by local think tank, the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR-Rwanda).

Dickson Malunda, a Senior Research Fellow at IPAR-Rwanda, told the participants that the survey carried out late last year indicates that though 77 per cent of the respondents had faith in the medium and long-term viability of the commercial real estate sector, 11 per cent did not find it viable while 10 per cent felt that there was potential, but only with government policy support.More

Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority (RLMUA) has extended the deadline for land registration from January 15, 2020 to June 30, 2020, citing various factors that led many to miss the initial deadline.

In the announcement, the Authority said the extra time came after realising that the land that was registered within the initial three-month period was more than 72,500 plots, which is far less than over 1.47 million plots of land that are not yet recorded.

Of such land which is not yet registered to their respective owners, a large part is found in Southern Province with more than 497,000 plots, followed by Western Province which accounts for over 393,000 plots.

Northern Province comes in third position with more than 297,000 plots, Eastern Province with above 253,000 plots, while the City of Kigali of Kigali has slightly over 30,000 plots.

The Authority explained that the challenges that hindered the progress include requests of people who indicated difficulties they faced in line with meeting the requirements to register their land.More

After years of speculation about what next for the premises formerly occupied by Nyarugenge Prison, popularly known as ‘1930’ the expansive prime property is set to accommodate what could be the country’s biggest Catholic cathedral.

Located in Kigali’s Central Business District, the facility is one of the oldest buildings in Kigali and among the oldest prisons in the country, having been built some 90 years ago – in 1930.

The Kigali Catholic cathedral, which is also the seat of Kigali Archdiocese, in currently at St Michel Church in Kiyovu, which is old and relatively small.

The last group of inmates from the ‘1930’ prison were relocated from the historical prison in July 2018 to the new Mageragere correctional facility slightly away from the bustle and hassle of the CBD.

This left the prime 5.5 hectare piece of land open for  re-developement.
The City of Kigali’s Director of Kigali Urban Planning and Construction One Stop Centre, Fred Mugisha told The New Times on Wednesday that though the plan is still in its initial stages, the Catholic Church had been given a go ahead to develop a concept.More

A newly released Ministerial Order has set standard rates and criteria to determine the tax rate applicable to plots of land, in accordance with the law determining the sources of revenue and property of decentralised entities.

The law, that was passed in 2018, had sparked controversy that culminated in a petition by lawyer Edward Murangwa, who challenged some of its provisions.

As a result, article 19 of the law was invalidated by the Supreme Court because it was found to be against the Constitution’s provision on equal treatment of people.

It stipulated an additional 50 per cent tax on land in excess of the standard plot size of 300 square meters, and at the same time provided that such additional tax rate does not apply to land acquired before the commencement of the law. More

Nyagatare District is set to inaugurate a new Rwf4billion Gatunda Hospital by the end of this fiscal yearafter two years of construction.

Nyagatare, which is the largest district in the country has 14 sectors and a population of around 700,000 population but had only one hospital. More

According to the IMF, growth continues to beat expectations, averaging 10.3 per cent in the first half of 2019, on the back of a booming construction sector, robust activity in services, and healthy agricultural output.

As a result, the 2019 growth projection was revised up from 7.8 to 8.5 per cent, with strong upside risk – especially given the recently released GDP figures suggesting that the economy grew in double digits in the third quarter. More

Southwestern Rwanda is predicted to receive more rains in the first three months of the year than the previous years, according to the latest national seasonal forecast.

The outlook, released recently by Rwanda Meteorology Agency, covers January through March, an important period for farmers.

It forecasts “a chance of above-normal and normal rains over most parts of the country.”

“The national climate outlook for January to March 2020 season indicates that northwestern and southwestern parts of the country are likely to experience slightly enhanced rainfall (above average),” reads a part of the report.

The forecast warns of rainfall ranging between 400-500 millimetres expected in districts of Rusizi, Nyamasheke, Karongi, Nyamagabe and Nyaruguru. More

King Faisal Hospital is undergoing a major infrastructure upgrade which is expected to cost an estimated $20 million.

The upgrade has been on the pipeline for a number of years and was expected to kick off during the previous management under Oshen Group, whose contract government terminated last year in April.

The upgrade will include the construction of a Doctor’s Plaza block with 45 outpatient consultation rooms (on the left from the entrance) and an Education and Research Centre (on the right from the entrance). More

Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) on Tuesday increased power tariffs for large residential customers and industries but slashed tariffs for healthcare facilities and data centres.

The tariff for healthcare facilities has been revised from Rwf192 per kilowatt hour (KWh) to Rwf186 per KWh, a reduction of 3 per cent in new tariffs that will come into effect next week on Tuesday.

The regulator said evaluation conducted showed that large healthcare facilities have equipment that consume more power than small industries, which informed the reduction.

RURA Director General Patrick Nyirishema said on Tuesday that this will have an effect on the way healthcare services are provided. More

Feasibility studies and design have been completed and if everything goes according to plan, Rwanda’s pilgrimage site of Kibeho in Nyaruguru district will have a new basilica with a seating capacity of 10,000.

Speaking to The New Times on Sunday, Francois Habitegeko, the Mayor of Nyaruguru, said that they expect the new basilica to be complete by November 2021, when the holy site marks it’s 40 anniversary.

Habitegeko said that engineers have already presented the design to the Catholic Church and the district authorities.

The construction works for the facility are estimated to cost up to $70 million (Rwf64bn). More

Rwanda has released figures for investments registered in the country last year, which shows local investors still have a long way to increase the pace in an economy that is steadily growing.

According to figures released by Rwanda Development Board (RDB) – the custodian of the country’s investments, $2.46 billion worth investments were registered last year up from $ 2.01 billion in 2018 – representing an increase of 22.6%.

RDB said local investors took 19% of the investments share, while foreign investors represented 37%. Joint ventures between foreign and local investors accounted for 44% of the investments.

Energy and manufacturing accounted for 75% of all investments registered (45% and 30% respectively), RDB said. More

Government is set to facilitate the creation of a financial institution in Rwanda that will be solely dedicated to funding projects that promote climate change resilience.

The development was first announced during the 25th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change which was held in Spain recently.

Speaking to The New Times on Monday, Doreen Nakure, a communication specialist at Rwanda Green Fund (FONERWA), said that the Fund has already contracted experts who will come up with a clear picture of how the bank will look like. More

It was a sigh of relief for 227 homeless families in Ubudehe Category One across 14 sectors of Gatsibo District after receiving new houses on Friday.

Ubudehe programme is a socio-economic initiative where Rwandans are classified based on their economic status.

The programme, currently has four categories – from the first where the poorest members of society belong to the fourth where the wealthiest belong – helps the government to better align services to citizens.

In the presence of Local Government Minister, Prof. Shyaka Anastase, and other officials at the inauguration event in Marimba Cell, Kabarore Sector, some of the beneficiaries said that they had spent more than two decades without homes. More

The stretch from La Palisse Nyandugu, through Cumi na Gatanu and Cumi n’Icyenda, along the Kigali-Kayonza highway, will never be the same.

Since Saturday, the small residential houses and shops that lined the road are being razed by the City of Kigali, in a move authorities say is aimed at protecting residents from dire consequences of the heavy rains that continue to pound the country.

At the site, the men demolishing houses casually share stories and jokes, their voices sometimes growing loud enough to mask the falling walls. More

At least 70 households in Musanze District have been relocated to schools as local authorities move to protect them from potential landslides during this rainy season.

The evacuation comes just a week after the landslides hit Muko, Kimonyi and Nkotsi sectors, burying 16 homes in the process and destroying acres of plantations mainly beans, banana, maize and Irish potato among others.

In a move to safeguard people from similar disasters, the district decided to relocate those believed to be vulnerable to landslides.  More

Rwanda and Qatar Airways on Monday signed three agreements that saw the two parties set up a joint venture to build, own, and operate the proposed international airport in Bugesera District.

It is the same facility that has been under construction under the name Bugesera International Airport but now a new name will be communicated in the coming days, according to officials. More

Although the progress of construction works of 80MW Regional Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project (RRFHP) are at 59 percent, Ministers in charge of Energy in Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania have rejected the suggestion of the contractors that it will be completed in July 2021.

On Friday, Minister of Infrastructure, Amb. Claver Gatete, Burundi’s Minister for Energy, Eng. Come Manirakiza, and Tanzania’s Energy Minister, Dr Medard Kalemani,  visited the project located on the River Akagera, at the border between Rwanda and Tanzania, and about 25 kilometres from Burundi. More

A new museum designed to showcase Rwandan music is in the works, and construction activities  are expected to kick off in February, 2020. The music museum, the aits, galleries and artifacts all designed to display Rwandan traditional musical instruments.

Speaking with Saturday Times in an interview, Abdul Makanyaga, a renowned traditional musician, said the museum is among the areas that would contribute to Rwanda’s development.  More

CIMERWA, the country’s leading cement business player, has registered a 20 per cent year on year increase in its sales volumes, attributed to its plant maintenance and upgrade in 2018.

Last year, Cimerwa produced only 364,864 tons of cement – less than 60 per cent of the total demand which saw the construction industry grapple with a shortage in supplies that saw a nearly 50 per cent increase in prices in some parts of the country. The country imported 318,854 tons to meet the demand of 640,455 tons, according to the statistics from the National Bank of Rwanda. More

At least 10 per cent of housing units to be constructed in a model green city in Kinyinya sector of Gasabo district will be offered to destitute residents from 1st and 2nd Ubudehe categories, according to Rwanda Green Fund.

The announcement was made during special Umuganda Community work in Kinyinya sector where the city will be set up.

Ubudehe programme is a socio-economic initiative where Rwandans are classified based on their economic status. The programme, currently classified under four categories—from the first where the poorest members of society belong to the fourth where the wealthiest belong—helps the government to better align services to citizens. More

According to the World Bank Doing Business report-2020, Rwanda is highly ranked 35^th globally in starting a business with a 93.2% score.

Anyone interested in starting a business in Rwanda goes through 5 procedures and would obtain certificate of registration within a period of between hours and four days, according to the current Doing Business report.

According to the World Bank, the ranking of economies on the ease of starting a business is determined by sorting their scores for starting a business. These scores are the simple average of the scores for each of the component indicators. More

The revised City of Kigali Master Plan will discourage the relocation of slum dwellers and only exceptions will be made where those slums are built in areas that are prone to disasters and will therefore endanger people’s lives, according to officials.

Houses in rundown neighborhoods will no longer be demolished to pave way for upscale housing as previously dictated by the 2013 version of the master plan.

The new master plan which is expected to be launched next month (December) will provide an option of home owners in slum dwellings to upgrade their houses to decent standards but in accordance with their financial means.

When the master plan was being drafted in May 2019, Jean Runuya, the chairperson of Rwanda Architects’ Association said that, previously, the master plan was only looked at as a tool to relocate citizens from high-risk zones and not in its broader context, which was counterproductive in the end. More

Nearly half a million people in Bugesera District will no longer have to lineup in long queues for medical services at Nyamata Hospital by the end of this fiscal year in June 2020 thanks to funding from Japan to upgrade the hospital facility.

The relief was disclosed as the Director-General of Nyamata Hospital, Dr William Rutagengwa, signed a grant agreement with the Japanese embassy in Rwanda.

The signing of the Rwf82.9-million-grant agreement took place on Tuesday, November 19.

During the signing, Dr Rutagengwa expressed his relief.

“By June 2020, Nyamata Hospital will have a new treatment building to facilitate healthcare operations. This will ease and quicken our services to an increasing demographic environment of the hospital’s operating region,” he said.

Nyamata Hospital is the only polyclinic in the whole district and it, therefore, receives a high number of patients beyond its capacity. It serves 448,142 residents of Bugesera district.

The new building will have two operating rooms, a preparation room, a patient’s waiting room, offices and storages. “The hospital needed to upgrade,” adds Dr Rutagengwa. More

Rwanda Development Bank (BRD) in collaboration with Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA) has launched a scheme that seeks to provide cheaper mortgages to Rwandans on their first house purchase.

The project known as the Rwanda Housing Financing Project promises cheaper mortgages and longer duration of payment. More

The International Fairs and Promotions (IFP) Group, one of the largest organisers of trade exhibitions in the Middle East, has announced its debut on the local market.

The firm, which works in five countries in the Middle East, is organising its first international trade exhibition for construction materials and equipment in the country.

Tony Ghattas, the Company’s Chief Operating Officer, told the press that they were moving to facilitate businesses to access broader markets.

“We are extending our presence in this region with ‘Project Africa – Rwanda’ to provide a strategic International platform to access the local and regional markets,” he said.

Ghattas says he has been visiting Rwanda for the past 11 years and has been thinking about what he can do for the country. More

From November 3-5 next year, Rwanda will host the International Fairs and Promotions (IFP) that will attract 10,000 exhibitors and create 90,000 jobs during this period.

The IFP is a pioneering trade fair and event organizer in the Middle East, with an impressive track record of over 500 successful events to date, spanning diverse industries in the region.

It operates in Lebanon, Iraq, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Egypt, where it provides a fundamental gateway to Middle East and North Africa markets.

This is the second biggest gathering announced to be hosted by Rwanda after the International Conference on Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) that will take place next month. More

construction works on the proposed Ngoma Stadium are 90 per cent complete and the facility is expected to be completed by January 2020, Ngoma District officials have said.

The facility is among three artificial turf stadia being constructed in Eastern Province, with the two in Nyagatare and Bugesera; all of them part of President Paul Kagame’s pledge to the people of the three districts to bring sports facilities closer to them.

Nyagatare and Bugesera, however, could not readily specify the status of the works by press time Friday.

The stadiums, which have a capacity of 3,500 seats, and cost of $9 million each, are being built by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), a Chinese construction company that funded the projects on loans that will be paid back by the districts in a period of five years. More

The International Monetary Fund has revised Rwanda’s economic growth projections to 8.5 per cent from 7.8 per cent.

While winding up their two-week mission in Kigali, officials from IMF said that economic activity in the first half of the year had outpaced expectations with real Gross Domestic Product growing by 10.3 per cent in the first half of the year.

With the second half of the year still fast-paced, the IMF projects that growth will be higher than was projected.

“The uptick in construction reflects both public infrastructure projects and private investment. Growth is expected to remain strong, 8.5 per cent in 2019 and around 8 per cent for the next 2 or 3 years,” Laure Redifer the mission’s chief noted. More

The City of Kigali has insisted that it will go ahead with a controversial plan to confiscate plots of land in the Central Business District and along strategic corridors it says have been lying idle for more than three years despite several warnings to the owners.

The decision, first announced Monday by the City vice Mayor for Urbanisation and Infrastructure, Ernest Nsabimana, has been reiterated by other City Hall officials who spoke to The New Times on Wednesday.

According to the Director of Kigali Construction and Urban Planning One Stop Centre, Fred Mugisha, the planned repossession will – for now – affect some 60 landowners who have repeatedly ignored formal notices to the effect that failure to develop the land property in question could lead to confiscation.

Twenty of these, he said, had hitherto been served with final formal notices and were thus in the red zone. More

You have seen several big projects all over Rwanda’s capital Kigali. The city is growing so fast – from smallest structures to the tallest – to the widest. Kigali is showing progress.

Driving around Kigali streets, new roads are coming up. Tarmac roads. Outside the capital, roads and bigger infrastructure projects are taking shape. No wonder, the country’s huge budget has been dedicated to infrastructural development – a case of the recently announced 2019-2020 budget.

According to the 2019/2020’s Rwf2.8 trillion budget, Infrastructure leads the country’s list of top six expenditure priorities – with a colossal Rwf551, 1 billion ($600 million) allocated to the sector. More

Rwanda’s Central Bank (BNR) is set to issue two bonds consecutively with a chance for potential investors to tap into both.

One of the bonds will be for three (3) years and another for seven (7) years, worth Rwf15billion ($16.149 million) each. Central Bank announced that both bonds will be issued at an interest (subject to 5% withholding tax) to the year 2020 on competitive and non-competitive bids worth a minimum of Rwf50m and Rwf100,000 respectively.

The market will be open from Monday 18th to Wednesday and close on 20th November 2019, the Central Bank said in a recent public communiqué, adding that investors can bid in one or both bonds.

So far, 21 bonds (worth billion francs) in total have been rolled out to the public since 2014 when the government took a firm commitment to issue bonds on a quarterly basis with various maturities periods ranging from five, seven, ten, fifteen and recently introducing a 20-year lifespan bond.

The issuances were aimed at financing the country’s major infrastructure projects such as the construction and upgrade of the Bugesera and Kigali International airports, road networks, among others. More

The Rwanda Housing Authority is seeking to have all casual labourers registered before they can offer their services, as part of plans to boost quality and stamp out corruption in the construction sector.

The price of construction materials is likely to increase in the coming months due to increasing demand, raising the cost of housing.

This is partly attributed to new tariffs introduced on quarry operators by local districts.

Quarry operators increased costs by between Rwf10,000 and Rwf25,000 per truck ferrying building materials such as bricks, gravel, sand and stones after districts placed new user charges and fees on quarry operators last month. more