The Minister for Local Government has disclosed that there is a plan to deploy secondary city managers in a bid to ensure their effective management. Jean-Marie Vianney Gatabazi revealed this on Tuesday, July 5, as the Senate’s Standing Committee on Economic Development and Finance engaged officials at the Ministry of Local Government and the Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA) on activities to fast-track sustainable urbanisation in the country. The Government wants to develop secondary cities as key economic drivers that complement the City of Kigali. As provided for by the law, Gatabazi said, they are planning for secondary cities to get city management offices which will have staff to add to the already existing district personnel. Currently, he said, those districts with secondary cities are governed in the conventional way as other districts. “But for the secondary city master plan to be implemented effectively, there should be offices for city management as is the case for the City of Kigali.” As things stand now, Gatabazi pointed out that the provision of quality services to urban residents is prone to be affected. “That is why we have to expedite the establishment of city management offices to help quicken service delivery and for the city to have autonomy in the finance and staff administration,” he said. Implementation LODA Director General, Claudine Marie Solange Nyinawagaga, said experts will carry out a feasibility study based on the services needed by the residents considering also the growing urbanisation, in order to provide a picture of the desired organisational structure. So far, the tender for that study has been offered, Nyinawagaga told senators, adding that they expect it to be conducted within 10 months. Meanwhile, she said that there are two officials in each of the secondary cities, one in charge of infrastructure and master plan, and another in charge of social safeguards which include rights of expropriated people, and environmental protection to ensure that projects being implemented do not destroy the environment. Call for in-depth assessment Senator Faustin Habineza said that there should be thorough assessment or setting of the responsibilities of the city manager, and those of the district Mayor in order to avoid misunderstanding between the two in terms of decision making. Senator Juvenal Nkusi, Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Finance, said that there is need for effective organisational structure for secondary city management based on the city needs. Giving an example of Rubavu City which has 234,000 residents, he expressed that a city with over 100,000 dwellers is big and that managing it the same way as a rural area can be ineffective. Meanwhile, some senators expressed concern that house construction is negatively affecting agriculture by consuming much land, observing that there should be effective land management in order to meet the food needs of the increasing urban dwellers. Under the National Strategy for Transformation, Rwanda has an objective of accelerating urbanisation such that 35 percent of its dwellers will be living in cities in 2024 and double to 70 percent in 2050. Information from the Rwanda Housing Authority indicated that in 2016, 18.4 percent of Rwandan residents were living in cities, but that the available estimates suggest that about 30.4 percent of Rwandans (estimated at 13 million today) are living in urban areas currently. Gatabazi said the national population census expected to be carried out next month will indicate the updated urban population statistics.
