Kigali, 19 February, 2019: Minister of Infrastructure, Honorable Claver Gatete chaired a meeting which aimed at reviewing and validating the draft guidelines for redevelopment and upgrading informal settlements in City of Kigali. The meeting also discussed the City of Kigali's proposed citywide informal settlement upgrading initiatives.

This technical meeting involved all partners across infrastructure development, housing and urban development including Government institutions, the City of Kigali, development partners, private sector, Academia, professional bodies, private developers, real estate developers and civil society.

The initial meeting discussed how the Government of Rwanda with its National Urbanization agenda can easily achieve its target of 35% of urban population by 2024 and create 1.5 Million decent and productive jobs in close collaboration with all stakeholders.

“To realize these targets, cities will require significant investments in infrastructure development and urban regeneration with direct linkages to their emerging visions and strategies to attract investment and catalyze economic and urban growth”, Minister Gatete said.

Minister Gatete further urged all stakeholders to partner, plan and do together the upgrading and regeneration of informal settlement to improve the livability in our cities.

“Rwanda has made great strides on almost all urban development indicators including access to infrastructure services. However, there has been a slow progress in upgrading of informal settlements and supply of affordable housing”, he mentioned.

The government emphasized on its inclusive policies in order to leave no one behind during informal settlement upgrading. A joint commission composed of representatives from the government, private sector, civil society, development partner was created to come up with a detailed business case that will be a win-win solution for all parties.