Funding drought bogs down Kigali Master Plan

OPTIMISM:Officials expect a breakthroughLack of funding has hampered several development projects in line with City of Kigali Master Plan, a city authority official has disclosed.In an interview with The New Times, the Vice Mayor in charge of Finance and Economic Development, Alphonse Nizeyimana, said KCC has registered multiple development projects but most of them have failed to take off due to lack of access to finance.He says this is affecting the implementation of phase one of the city Master Plan that was launched in January last year.The five-year phase mainly targets developing a financial and commercial hub, dubbed, the Central Business District (CBD).According to the current development on the master plan, the CBD 1 which covers an area of 13 hectares has 12 plots out of 20 booked.Although the implementation is promising basing on the ongoing projects in the city, several other developers are struggling.“We have received many project proposals and issued construction permits but they have not started construction due to financial constraints,” said Nizeyimana.According to KCC, high cost of financing mortgages, high interest rates and inability to give long term loans are some of the challenges affecting development in the city.On this note, KCC has appealed to the government to come up with a special mortgage facility geared at boosting the implementation of the master plan.“We are currently trying to discuss with the central bank and external financial institutions to help give long term loans to these developers,” Nizeyimana said.Nizeyimana is, however, optimistic that, regardless of the challenges faced, the first phase will achieve its set targets by 2015. Several projects, prominent among them Kigali City Hall (Rwf7.5bn), and the proposed USD 54 million New Century Development Limited’s project that will house Mariott Hotel are close to completion. According to KCC, projects worth Rwf 140bn have so far been approved by the city’s construction office.

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Funding drought bogs down Kigali Master Plan