Residents of the City of Kigali and its peripherals have over the years been grappling with the issue of public transport, which mainly gets worse at peak hours – early morning and evenings – as people commute to and from work. It even gets worse when schools are in session because then, on top of workers, you have students going to school on a daily basis, which worsens an already bad situation. The problem has only been worsening by the years, and it is not helped by the exponential growth in the population of the City of Kigali, which was put at over 1.7 million by the recent Rwanda Population and Housing Census by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda. For a city that is on the move in different aspects, Kigali needs a robust public transport system that is dynamic enough to cater for the current population living in the city and those who commute here daily to eke a living, but also be forward-looking enough to respond to any needs that may arise. It is in this context that during the recent Umushyikirano Council, the issue was given enough attention during the discussions, so much so that it featured among the key resolutions adopted from the high level meeting. At the meeting, it was announced by the Ministry of Infrastructure, which is also in charge of the transport docket, that 300 buses would be imported in the coming months to address the current gap. While this is a significant investment, it will still be short of the required number that was announced last year which is needed to address the public transport woes in the capital because an assessment had put the need at 500 buses. However, every journey begins somewhere and, hopefully, the introduction of these new buses on our roads will significantly cut the queues that we see at bus stops or even bus terminals in the city every morning and during the evening. There is however a need to streamline the distribution of these buses in all suburbs of the city such that all city residents are evenly served as the city continues to expand. Above all however, the private sector must be fully involved to make sure the transport challenges are fully addressed, because, as they say, any challenge is an opportunity through the prisms of a business person.
