Determinants of Efficiency in the Construction Industry in Kigali City, Rwanda

Abstract

This paper aims at highlighting the main factors affecting efficiency in the construction industry in Kigali, Rwanda. This is because the contribution of the construction industry in growth and development is widely recognized. The desire to maximize returns from sector has thus forced stakeholders to identify ways of reducing wastage and ensure optimal utilization of key re-sources like finance, human resource and time among others. This paper uses selected high rise building projects in Kigali city explain the main forces influencing efficiency in a country like Rwanda. The study adopted a descriptive method that involved administration of question-naires, observations and document reviews. In the end, the study concluded that five factors ex-plain construction projects time overruns and thus inefficiency. The factors were identified in order of significance as follows: i) variations and design changes during project execution peri-od, ii) late payment to the contractor; iii) slow decision making, iv) delays in delivery of build-ing materials; and financial challenges by the building contractors. In the end, the study rec-ommended among others that efficiency in the construction industry would require adequate preparation including risk analysis, understanding the local conditions and that for more gener-alization of the results there would be need for similar studies covering other parts of Rwanda.