Housing
A Housing Crisis Brews in Rwanda’s Capital City
Rural residents are flooding Kigali looking for opportunities. But where will they live?
Kigali is Rwanda’s largest city, with about 1.7 million residents.
Photographer: Luke Dray/Getty Images
The population of Rwanda’s capital roughly doubled in the last two decades. But the real challenge comes when it does so again over the next 2 ½ decades as rural citizens flood urban centers in search of opportunities.
The runaway expansion makes Kigali one of the fastest-growing cities globally and creates huge demand for decent housing in what remains one of the world’s smallest and poorest countries, despite an average annual growth rate of 7% since 2009, among the highest in the world.