University of Rwanda headquarters to move to a new building

The University of Rwanda (UR) management has announced that by the end of this year, its main headquarters will have relocated to a new building located at its Nyarugenge campus, commonly known as Camp Kigali.

The construction of this building began in 2017, as part of a large $40 million project funded by South Korea. The project included the construction of the main headquarters, student dormitories at the UR Nyarugenge campus, and the School of Mining and Geosciences.

The various buildings under this project were planned to be completed in phases, with the building set to house the UR headquarters originally scheduled to be inaugurated in 2021. However, various obstacles caused delays in the project timeline.

UR’s Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Kayihura Muganga Didas, told IGIHE, “Most of the work has been completed, and we will move into the building before the end of this year. It won’t go beyond December 2024.”

When explaining the delays in the construction, he stated, “What happened is that the initial contract with the contractor expired before the building was completed, so we had to renew it, as some adjustments were made during the construction phase.”

“Since this building was part of a larger project, which included other structures, there were several things that needed to be coordinated, leading to delays. Additionally, the project involved many stakeholders, including the Government of Rwanda, South Koreans, the construction contractor, supervisors, and the bank providing the funds.”

He added that all of these challenges have now been addressed, and the building has already been fully equipped. However, some minor external works remain and are expected to be completed in the coming months.

He said, “They are currently finalizing work on the parking area and relocating the main gate, as the previously planned entrance was located near the tented area of Camp Kigali. However, we realized that this could pose a challenge during major events, leading to congestion. We concluded that this might force our staff to use alternative entrances near the nearby secondary school, which is quite far. We have requested that the main gate be placed in front of the building, near the road leading to Biryogo, so it can serve only the university.”

Dr. Kayihura explained that the reason for moving the university headquarters is that the current location was not originally designated for that purpose.

Since 2013, the University of Rwanda headquarters has been based at the Gikondo campus. The management clarified that this location was intended for classrooms and faculty offices.

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