Lack of financial capacity and skilled personnel have continued to deny local contractors the opportunity to win public tenders. The Ministry of Infrastructure says this is the main reason local firms miss juicy government deals. Most of the big projects by government and the private sector are awarded to Chinese and other foreign contractors.

James Musoni, the Minister for Infrastructure, advised the local companies to quickly fix capacity gaps and become more competitive and qualify for government jobs.

Musoni, who was speaking during the national engineer’s forum organised by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Rwanda Engineers Council, said local contractors lack the competence and capacity to handle big projects.

Out of the almost 32 contracts awarded in the energy and construction sectors between 2011 and 2015, only 15 per cent were won by local contractors.

The ministry will, however, continue working with stakeholders to ensure that the country’s construction industry attains the necessary skills to observe standards and become competitive.

"The government has prioritised infrastructure development, allocating almost third of the national budget to the sector. It is therefore, important that the engineers and other sector players have the right skills to benefit.

"This will, however, require improving your expertise and promotion of ethical conduct among local sector professionals,” Musoni noted.

It also allocated Rwf128.3 billion for the rehabilitation or opening up of feeder roads in rural areas; Rwf34.2 billion to increase access to clean water in Kigali and other districts with low access to safe water, while Rwf135 billion was set aside for projects that will help extend electricity to the free trade zone, among others.

The minister argued that it is only when a country has a skilled engineering professionals that it can provide appropriate infrastructure projects, which they can operate and maintain.

No engineers for railway, wind energy projects  

Meanwhile, Jules Ndenga, the Ministry of Infrastructure senior engineer in charge of the railway project, has revealed that the country lacks enough qualified engineers to undertake the railway project. Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya plan to build a standard gauge railway line connecting Kigali to Kampala and Mombasa by 2017.

Some of the countries, like Kenya, have started on the project works, while Rwanda is doing studies for the standard gauge railways project, among others.

The country has no railway and relies on expensive road transport to transport goods and services across the country.

In what Ndenga called a ‘worrying’ situation, the country is also still short of skilled engineers to undertake works on its sewerage system, as well as develop wind energy and space navigation projects.

According to Ndenga, the skills gap among local engineers is one of the reason the government often resorts to foreign workers and companies.

Lack of practical training

The engineers blamed the trend on lack of practical training in high institutions of learning.

Eng Fred Rwihunda, the president of the Institute of Engineers Rwanda, said the challenge of poor skills requires joint efforts of all stakeholders, including learning institutions and government. He said universities should promote practical training, giving engineering students exposure and requisite knowledge to run the sector in a sustainable manner.

Eng Dismas Nkubana, the chairman of the Rwanda Engineering Council, argued that controlling access to the practice of the profession and strong monitoring are critical for the sustainability of the industry.

He added that a tight procedure should be adopted when examining and admitting engineers applying to join the engineers body.

According to Nkubana, regulating who practices engineering will ensure a more responsible and accountable profession, which will help take the country’s infrastructure to the next level.

Meanwhile, Rwihunda has called for a strong law to handle fake engineers, saying they are tainting the image of the industry.

"We also need to address the challenge of lack of local materials, especially in the construction industry, to be able to grow the sector,” he noted.

He said the country is importing almost all the materials needed by the construction sector and, "yet exporting what we would actually use which eats into our profits”.