The Rwanda Social Security Board plans to construct up to 7,000 low-cost houses to address the shortage of affordable housing for low-income earners. The cost of the homes will range between Rwf10 million to Rwf20 million per unit.

The houses will be built in 25,000 hectares of land in Gasabo District using low-cost technologies. RSSB is already working with Strawtec to use their construction materials made from compressed wheat residues.

“We are working with several partners like Strawtech and Horizon, which provided the land in Gasogi,”said Richard Tusabe, Director-General of RSSB.

Kigali is projected to need over 400,000 houses by 2020 according to data from Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR). The population in Kigali has been growing over the past few years, from 1,059,000 people in 2011 to a projection of 1,957,321 people by 2020, 3,059,457 people by 2030 and 5,347,178 people by 2040.

High rate of urbanisation and population growth, limited monitoring and evaluation of public housing policies, as well as high cost of construction materials and land have contributed to the lack of affordable housing for low-income earners.

Experts have been urging the government to invest in the construction sector as leaving it entirely to the private sector will worsen the problem of lack of affordable housing.

RSSB has been investing pension contributions in high-end housing projects and commercial buildings, many of which have not been profitable.

Gasore Seraphin, the deputy secretary-general of Cotraf, a syndicate of pensioner’s trade unions in the country said they appreciate RSSB increasing pensions benefits for low-income earners, but they remain concerned about the loss making projects the body is investing in.

Mr Seraphin said some of the commercial buildings constructed by RSSB only have a 50 per cent occupancy rate, while other houses don’t have buyers. RSSB recently reduced the prices for apartments at the plush Vision City estate in Gaculiro, Kigali by 60 per cent for public servants after finding it difficult to get buyers.

Auditor General’s report

The Auditor-General’s annual reports also highlights RSSB’s loss making ventures, which the pension body says it has studied and will implement the recommendations.

“We are coming up with strategies to address the bad investments. We have looked at the Auditor General’s report and plan to implement most of the recommendations by the end of this financial year” said Mr Tusabe.

RSSB’s outlook is slowly improving as it has already posted Rwf25 billion profit in the first six months of this financial year and is expecting to make an additional Rwf60 billion in profits. It targets to collect up to Rwf163 billion in contributions this financial year, having already exceeded its Rwf82 billion target for the first six months, after collecting Rwf85 billion.

RSSB has already earned Rwf32.5 billion in revenues from its investments this year and expects to earn a total Rwf59 billion, having exceeded its six months target of Rwf29 billion.

The pension body has invested Rwf206 in the past six months, below its Rwf262 billion target. It plans to spend Rwf95 billion for pension benefits, Mutuelle de Sante and maternity leave payments this year.

In a bid to turn around the institution’s fortunes, Mr Tusabe has embarked on improving service delivery and making the pension body more efficient.a