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Huye, Rwanda

Huye district is one of the eight districts of the Southern Province. Huye hosts the largest campus of the University of Rwanda (UR). It has a total surface area of 581.5 square kilometers; it has fourteen sectors and 77 cells with a total 508 villages. The district has a population of 354,875.

Huye town is located at 156.1km from Bujumbura and 150.8 km from Bukavu (DRC), which makes a strategic location for investment. Huye is known to be a hub of Education and historic heritage. It hosts the National Museum, home of Rwanda’s cultural and historic heritage. It accommodates various research institutions like the National Industrial Research and Development Agency (NIRDA), Rwanda Agriculture Board, and many public institutions. The district is the former capital city of Rwanda – Urundi and has more touristic sites like the Ethnographic Museum, Arboretum forest, Ibisi bya Huye, the first public school and University in Rwanda, and others.

Huye town is among the 6 secondary cities and known to be an engine for human capacity development and will continue to raise investment, to promote the hospitality industry and development of the industrial park, as potential drivers of the social transformation of citizens.

Huye is the former capital of Rwanda—Urundi. Previously called 'Astrida' it was home to the national university but the University of Rwanda was decentralized to different locations across the country, in forms of Campuses and Huye is now accommodating one of the largest Campus.

Huye has been known as a hub of education, especially the City, for its intellectual capacity, where it has many academic institutions, various educational institutions such as the prestigious Nyakibanda Seminary, G.S.O de Butare2 amongst others that contributed much in the Rwandan education history. To date, more educational institutions have been established in the District, with enough space and facilities for research and development, that offer a masse-critique for education, research, and development.

The presence of the National Ethnographic Museum, the Queen’s Palace, and its related touristic assets like Ikibuye cya Shari, Mont Kinyamakara, Mont Mwulire, Ibisi bya Huye and other historic locations.  The arboretum forest houses more than 3,000 tree species and monkeys, is considered as the “Rwanda’s cultural and historic pulse” and this makes Huye to be “Centre for Heritage Corridor”.

Huye has the third-highest population density of all of the six secondary cities: significantly above the national average. According to the 2012 National Census, Huye City is home to 52,768 people, representing 16.1% of the entire District Population (NISR, 2012).

Huye has significant opportunities for resource-based manufacturing, but many of its plants operate at less than 50% capacity.

Learning City Developments

In 1917, the City of Huye was founded by a German, DEFANE, who created the post of Rango with the aim of assembling indigenous carriers who were to be sent to Tabora (Tanzania). In 1923, a Belgian, Dardenne, transferred this post to an area spreading across four hills (Kabutare, Ruhande, Mamba and Buye). In 1928, this new site was named « ASTRIDA » in honour of the Belgian Queen Astrid. It was chosen to become the Capital of the joint territory of Ruanda-Urundi. Between 1928 and 1950, was a period of construction during which the City was developed according to the following broad outlines prevalent at the time: a district for whites spread across three hills; a district for indigenous people at Ngoma; an Arabic district at Mamba. From 1950 until 1963, the city’s infrastructure was established, including the construction of asphalt road, securing the availability of water and electricity, founding the Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IRSAC, which later became NIRDA), the Veterinary Laboratory, and the School of Karubanda, etc…

After Independence in 1962, the City was renamed Butare. The University of Rwanda (UR) was founded in 1963 and soon influenced considerably the city’s development. The genocide of 1994 marked a profound cut from which the city has been recovering courageously. With Huye city’s privileged location at the crossroads of three big cities [Bukavu, Bujumbura and Kigali], its agreeable climate and its historic gems, one can rightfully be optimistic about its flourishing.

Some key activities in the Learning Cities field 

Huye city is composed of residential areas in the North and South, and a cluster with commercial, administrative and public institutions in the central part; while agriculture serves as a backbone sector for Huye economic growth (NR, 2015) with a high potentiality in historical and cultural tourism and resource-based manufacturing opportunities.

According to the 2012 National Census, Huye City is home to 52,768 people, representing 16.1% of the entire District Population (NISR, 2012), which is still low considering the target of Vision 2020 and NST1 that envisions at achieving 35% of urbanization across the Country (GoR, 2013). Therefore, to realize this level, Huye will require considerable investments in infrastructure and services with direct linkages to its emerging potentialities, vision and strategies to attract and catalyse sustainable economic and urban growth.

The Local economy of Huye City is mainly characterised of business activities that play a key role in creating jobs. Among those include 1,876 firms (46% growth), of which 8 are large firms, 50 medium firms, 77 cooperatives, 21 hotels (NR, 2015). The presence of an Industrial Park and Agakiriro Centre is also a significant opportunity for the City to create more jobs, in addition to several TVET centres that will play a role in capacity building and providing capable and skilled people, hence bringing a change towards a transformative economy.  
According to the National Road Map for Green Secondary Cities (NR, 2015), based on Huye City highest potentialities, the specific branding of Huye City was meant to be “A Hub for Knowledge, Culture and Agribusiness” and key economic clusters should be the key focus:

• Education and academic research;
• Agribusiness (food and beverage, coffee culture and washing, dairy and livestock, seed production);
• Building fixtures and wood crafting;
• Pharmaceutical research and drug manufacturing;
• Tourism based on historic and natural attractions and academic tourism;
• Handicraft (Leather, carpentry, metalwork, tailoring, ornamental items).

Priority Areas for Future Development

1. Industrial development ( Instant coffee processing, educational materials, agri-business, packaging);
2. Capacity Development for Employment Creation;
3. Development of the tourism industry (Conference facilities, Hotels, Coffee tourism, …);
4. Quality Service Delivery;
5. Modernizing Agriculture and increasing productivity;
6. Infrastructure Development (Recreational áreas, Public Library);
7. Mining and Environment protection;
8. Embracing IT in service delivery;
9. Youth Employment;
10. Good governance.

Interests to pursue within PASCAL LCN

Having experienced the good trends of KESC1 in Job networking between Job seekers and employers gave an idea to establish Employment Service centers in the secondary cities, starting with Musanze Employment Service Centre established in 2016 and the newly created and launched on 17th December 2019 Huye Employment Service Centre (HESC).

The vision of HES is to be a center of excellence that satisfies the needs of employers and jobseekers.

Mission statement:

• Empower job seekers and increase their competitiveness by facilitating access to labour market information, employment, and offering career-related training and guidance services;
• Assist employers in the recruitment process by offering vacancy registration and linking them with well-prepared job applicants.