Kagame Sunk US$120 Million Workers’ Pension Into Vision City But Can’t Find Buyers

By David Himbara

In his determination to make the Rwandan capital city of Kigali the smartest city in Africa, head of state General Kagame personally approves all major projects. The second in command to Kagame used to be the former Minister of Infrastructure, James Musoni until Kagame fired him in March 2018. The two men dreamt and implemented Vision City, built by the workers’ pension funds to the tune of US$120 Million. Vision City is the biggest residential housing project in Rwanda to-date and Kagame’s flagship project. There is a problem though — Kagame’s Vision City cannot find buyers. The prices of the properties in Vision City range between US$188,721 to US$500,000 in a country with a per capita income of US$743.

The price of Vision City properties is beyond the reach of most Rwandans

When Vision City was completed in 2016, there were hardly any buyers of its apartments and houses. The detached houses went as high as US$500,000. In desperation, prices were slashed in 2017. The price of three-bedroom townhouse dropped from Rwf237 million (US$269,172) to Rwf166 million (US$188,721). A four-bedroom apartment was slashed from Rwf257 million (US$291,885) to Rwf180 million (US$204,617). Still, there were no buyers. Then in October 2018, the prices were slashed by 60 percent so that Rwandan public servants could afford the properties. We are still waiting to see if there are any buyers.