The government, under the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS II) is promoting regional centres of excellence as well as development of satellite cities in all the provinces by 2018.  The plan is besides supporting regional growth and urbanisation, aimed at creating jobs in the provinces to stem rural-urban migration.

Musanze in Northern Province, Nyagatare in Eastern Province, Huye and Muhanga in Southern province, as well as Rubavu and Rusizi in Western Province are the satellite cities that were identified under EDPRS II that was launched last year. This is one of the priorities of EDPRS II aimed at transforming the economic geography of Rwanda by facilitating urbanisation and promoting secondary cities. Rwanda’s rural urban migration rate stands at 4.8 per cent compared to that at the global level that stands at 1.9 per cent.

"The six secondary cities will be developed as poles of growth and centres of non-agricultural economic activities. This will require investment in specific hard and soft infrastructure and strategic economic projects that will trigger growth of these cities and enhance linkages to other towns and rural areas,” according to EDPRS II plan.

Affordable housing will also be a key element of increased attractiveness of these cities, it adds.

Under EDPRS II, Rubavu will be developed as a tourism city, Huye as an education hub, Nyagatare as construction material producers, among others.

However, over one year since the growth blueprint was unveiled; there is growing concern on whether the dream of transforming these towns into satellite cities, especially ensuring planned urbanisation and setting up of affordable houses, will be achieved as planned.

Do these towns have the capacity, expertise and resources to help them develop into secondary cities?

According to Esther Mutamba, the Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA) director general, said currently urban growth is at 4.1 per cent, while 17 per cent of national population live in urban areas. So, more efforts are  needed to achieve the targeted 35 per cent rate of urbanisation by 2020, she added.

She told Business Times that the identified secondary cities’ current average urbanisation rate is at 4 per cent compared to the required growth rate of 12 per cent per annum.

RHA is one of the government agencies spearheading the development of secondary cities.

Mutamba, who was addressing district leaders and policy-makers during the retreat organised by ministries of infrastructure and local government, last week, said districts need to embrace land banking (buy and preserve land for future projects), develop affordable housing finance mechanisms, discourage scattered settlements and emphasise real estate development for better service delivery.

"We must work on the ‘pull factors’ to achieve urbanisation and transform provincial towns into satellite cities. We must also be able to identify settlement sites and source of funds to support them,” she added.

James Musoni Minister for Infrastructure, urged districts to develop master plans to help fast-track the implementation of activities, which will make the dream of developing secondary cities into a reality.

"We have limited time and must move fast and work together to support projects which will spur growth to at least 12 per cent per year from the current 4 per cent. Local governments must create and operationalise one-stop centres, conduct intensive training programmes for staff to equip them with necessary professional skills that will help enforce their master plans,” Musoni noted.

We are requesting districts to align their budgets with the master plans and work on public awareness about the master plan to gain support and ownership from residents, Musoni stressed.

What has been done

According to Mutamba, all the necessary plans to create these cities are in place.

"What is remaining is implementation… We have already established where we have informal settlements and now working with UN habitant to address the challenge,” Mutamba noted.

Scaling up investments in the service, manufacturing and agricultures sectors will not only increase revenue collections in these districts, but also the rate of urbanisation.

Mutamba said they are working with the World Bank to see how they can support these towns to help deliver targeted activities.

Currently the African Development Bank is supporting solid waste management and establishment of permanent solid waste landfills in Rusizi one of the planned secondary cities.

UN Habitat is working on national urbanisation policy and slum upgrading in Muhanga and Musanze.

Challenges

As much as government is pushing for 35 per cent rate of urbanisation and creation of secondary cities, a number of constraints remain.

According to district leaders, lack of proper co-ordination for urbanisation and shared vision of ownership of district master plans, continued growth of illegal and uncontrolled informal settlements, lack of proper enforcement and regulatory framework on master plans are some bottlenecks they are facing.

Oscar Nzabonimana, the mayor of Rusizi, said the district has already streamlined and aligned its master plan with the economic activities in the area.

"However, we still have some challenges with the implementation, a reason we are calling on Rwanda Housing Authority to lead us in this programme,” Nzabonimana, noted.

The Nyagatare mayor, Fred Sabiiti, highlighted the challenge of outdated master plans, insufficient details for master plans and inadequate master plan implementation regulatory framework.

"We also need to focus more on attracting investors through streamlined and well co-ordinated economic activities because this is how we will be able to boost growth and realise the kind of urbanisation we want to achieve,” Sabiiti noted.

According to Sheikh Hassan Bahame, the Rubavu District mayor, focusing on job-creation, while availing more land to support economic activities will help fast-track urbanisation and growth of the secondary cities.

"We are thinking of creating free market centres, where people can come and trade without being   charged. This we believe will promote trade and boost economic activities in Rubavu and surrounding areas,” Bahame said.

Musanze mayor Winifred Mpembyemungu said there is need to resolve the conflict between agriculture and urbanisation to be able to create space for urbanisation and creation of secondary cities.

"For instance, residents do not understand the issue of economic zones and industrial parks. They are looking at these projects as a threat to their traditional livehood activities, including agriculture,” Mpembyemungu noted.

It will also depend on how we address the challenge of land ownership and activity specialisation in different regions of the country and specific towns, she added.

According to Fidele Ndayisaba, the City of Kigali mayor, creating secondary cities will depend on the discipline in the implementation of the master plans.

"Discipline in master plan implementation, inspection and strong monitoring mechanisms are critical ingredients districts must respect if they are to achieve planned urbanisation,” he said.

Government steps up efforts

According to minister Musoni, RHA will work closely with local government authorities to improve the existing master plans in order to have mutual understanding on the implementation mechanism.

The ministries of Infrastructure and Finance have initiated the process of assessing the current infrastructure needs at the national level with the purpose of improving and streamlining the planning and budgeting processes for the year 2015/16 and beyond, he added.

He urged the councils of the selected satellite cities to continue budgeting for planned projects, and cautioned them against diverting the money to other activities.

The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda 2012 data indcates that 60 per cent of those that migrate from rural areas end up in Kigali city.

According to the strategy, government seeks to raise GDP per capita from $644 last year to $1,240, reduce poverty levels from 44 per cent to about 20 per cent and eliminate extreme poverty, and achieve an average of 11.5 per cent growth.

What ordinary Rwandans think about creation of secondary cities

Boniface Gakuba from Burera District

There are many poverty reduction programmes, but I hope EDPRS II will give more support to agriculture. People at the grassroots need support to run at least small businesses like cattle keeping or poultry. Farmers need loans or subsidies to improve productivity and supply provincial cities that are being developed and ensure sustainable growth.

Jacqueline Ntakirutimana

The government should support associations and co-operatives, especially those that promote women projects, with development funds.

Valens Ndagijimana, a builder in Kimihurura

Youth should train in vocational skills to be able to create jobs. For residents of the secondary cities to benefit, they need to be empowered to know how operate businesses better and profitably. If the programme entails raising technology and infrastructure, we will get jobs and improve our livelihoods. Besides, the many youth flocking Kigali for jobs will stay in countryside and contribute to the development of the localities.

Micheline Nyinawabeza from Nyaruguru District

The pilot cities will contribute greatly to the development of different parts of the country. In countryside, some people have no access to electricity and water, yet these are important in job-creation to help the poor to get an income and eradicate poverty.