The Minister of Infrastructure, Albert Nsengiyumva, has announced that the City of Kigali has embarked on a survey to provide a clear picture of income distribution levels of every Rwandan that would eventually determine the average cost of a house."The study will help us identify which area government should put more focus on because, so far, we don’t know what should be considered low cost.” He made the disclosure, yesterday, during the opening of 31st Shelter Afrique Annual General Meeting and the 2012 Annual Symposium taking place from 6 to 8 June 2012 at Serena Hotel in Kigali. Shelter Afrique is a Pan African financial institution dedicated to finance housing and infrastructural related activities in Africa.   The meeting, which was opened by Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, is held under the theme "Financing Low Cost Housing in Africa: Meeting the Challenges.” The Premier said the event is timely as the government, through vision 2020 and Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS, is focused on addressing housing needs of the population and providing decent housing, especially for the low and middle income earners.The Premier challenged engineers and technicians to develop home-grown technologies so as to facilitate the availability of affordable houses."I challenge you to develop good designs, construction materials made in our respective countries to mitigate the challenge of high cost on imports of raw materials which would lead to construction of low cost houses.” Rwanda hopes to benefit more after increasing its subscription fee in the pan African housing institution from US$304,000 to US$2 million. Some of the ongoing Shelter Afrique funded projects include the Sunrise Hotel and residence in Nyarutarama, Kigali Top Mountain Phase II, an eight storey office building belonging to BMC properties Limited in Kigali, and a US$7.6 million credit line channelled to Rwanda Development Bank. The Director General of Shelter Afrique, Alassane Bá, emphasised that governments should focus on low and affordable houses to curb the proliferation of slums across the continent."As Africa is growing, low and middle income class demand for low cost houses and if not addressed, this leads to an increase in slums which become expensive for government to eliminate.” A local property agent, Charles Haba, cited some of the major challenges facing them as  high costs and heavy reliance on imported raw materials, as well as infrastructural deficiencies."Rwf10 million would be affordable for a public servant who earns Rwf150, 000 but so far, these types of houses have not been developed.” The meeting has attracted more than 250 delegates from 44 African countries,  including ministers and senior housing and welfare officials, as well as housing, construction and finance experts.The country’s housing sector has spent a total of US$22.5 million since 2005 as part of efforts to bridge a glaring housing demand of between 20,000 and 25,000 residential units per annum.