Kigali City Construction One-Stop Centre has so far approved 80 percent of project applications since its inception in April. Alphonse Nizeyimana, the vice Mayor in charge of finance and economic development revealed this recently in a press briefing.

Among the projects received, Nizeyimana said, 25 were project proposals, 44 construction permit requests while 13 were plan and site plan modification, road access and requests for land.

32 percent of the construction permits, he said were issued. "All these applications were complete in six days average,” Nizeyimana said.

Of the commercial facilities approved in the Central Business District (Nyarugenge), 25 percent are hospitality facilities which include hotels.

However, according to a report seen by The New Times, the centre still faces challenges of low level public awareness on land use management, insufficient technical skills among the centre’s technical teams as well as district and the private sector and lack of detailed plan for Kicukiro and Gasabo districts.

"But we have allocated significant funds for intensive staff capacity building in the 2010/2011 budget and the detailed plan for both districts is also catered for in the same budget,” Nizeyimana said.

The centre approves business oriented projects such as industries and factories, facilities receiving at least 100 people per day and building with more than two storeys.

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