Kigali speeds up construction permits
Saturday, 08 February 2014 09:39 By Bosco K. Hitimana

Construction
New reforms to attract more investment into the construction sector.
INDEPENDENT/Bosco K. Hitimana
Inspired by the World Bank's 2013-2014 Doing Business report which
ranked Rwanda poorly at 85 out of 189 economies surveyed on the ease
of "Dealing with construction permits" in the annual survey, the
reforms are expected to scale up investment into the underserved
market for commercial and residential properties.
The Rwandan authorities regard this ranking, which was an impressive
improvement from 122 in the 2012-2013 report, as unacceptable to the
country that is pushing for a private sector-led economy. They want a
better ranking in the 2014-2015 report.
According to Lillian Mupende, the Director of the city's Urban
Planning and One Stop Centre for construction permits, a unit
established by the City council to speed up issuance of construction
permits, the new reforms will see procedures and time required to
obtain construction related permits significantly slashed.
Based on the 2013-2014 Doing Business report, to obtain construction
related permits, an applicant (read investor) would be subjected to a
string of 13 procedures, leading to a waste of 104 days. This
literally means that acquiring construction related permits in Rwanda
was encroaching on investors' money, time and the will to invest in
the country thus denying the economy timely trickle down of benefits
such investment would have brought in the small agrarian economy.
Mupende and her team are however determined to put a smile on the face
of the authorities and investors by reducing significantly the number
of procedures to an ambitious four steps which will swiftly bring down
the time to acquire all the approvals to 25 days. To cut the
procedures, some will be bundled together which will reduce the number
of days investors have to wait.
Eyeing top spot in the 2014-2015 Doing Business Report
Minister of Trade and Industry, François Kanimba, who recently
launched the reforms in construction permitting, says if issuing
construction related permits can be done in four steps over a 25 day
period, Rwanda will have clinched the top spot globally which is
currently held by its development role model, Singapore, the
economically successful Asian nation that issues construction permits
in just 26 days.
Rwanda's development model, which hinges on efficient public service
delivery to enable the private sector thrive, fetches its inspiration
from the Singaporean model, which saw the small Asian country build
its economy based on the services to rise to one of the highly
successful economies in the world in less than a century.
Kanimba, the former Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), the
country's central bank, was quick to highlight the benefits the
economy stands to reap if the reforms are implemented to the
satisfaction of the investors.
"For investment to increase, it is a pre-requisite for the public
sector to facilitate investors in their endeavours to implement their
projects because when an investment project delays, the loss does not
only spread to the country but also the investor is hugely affected
especially when the investment had a loan component." The affected
investor, Kanimba warned, could prevent other investors from bringing
their money into the country, citing failures by the government to put
in place an investor-friendly working environment. The Mayor of the
City of Kigali, Fidele Ndayisaba, also echoed the benefits of
facilitating investors-both local and foreign- to access construction
permits, urging that construction activities not only contribute to
the economic growth of the city and its visually appealing looks but
also create jobs for the city population.
Architects hail reforms but demand public awareness
Jean Marie Vianney Kamiya, the Chairman of the Rwanda Institute of
Architects, a professional body that has worked closely with the city
of Kigali to identify the necessary reforms in construction permitting
hailed the new reforms.
He however urged the city authorities to make the public aware of the
new reforms before they are implemented.
Working on behalf of investors, architects work closely with the One
Stop centre during the application process which has been automated to
reduce further delays in the approvals permits. "What we want to
give to the business community is efficiency," said Kamiya. Kamiya
dispelled fears that reducing procedures may affect the quality and
cause safety problems such as collapsing buildings. "We will work
together and see if the quality of the work that we produce goes hand
in hand with the time for processing various documents. We should not
be sceptical at this time; we should trust that the goals set are
feasible and achievable."
The city of Kigali, which is Rwanda's business and political capital,
has experienced visible changes in terms of the new commercial
buildings and residential estates developed over the past decade.
Nevertheless, the supply of commercial and residential houses remains
way below the demand, a phenomenon that has continuously pushed rent
out of control, making Kigali East Africa's most expensive capital
city.
http://www.independent.co.ug/news/regional-news/8678-kigali-speeds-up-construction-permits
--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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