Construction of US$2m Kigali Hospitality Management Institute in Rwanda has stalled. Workforce Development Authority (WDA) has halted the construction activities due to delayed payments by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
The project which is 78% complete, was started back in early 2015 following an agreement between Workforce Development Authority (WDA) and Swiss-based hospitality school Les Roches International School of Hotel Management. Les Roches was to provide advisory and support services to WDA in a project to establish the hospitality institute in Rwanda for four years leading up to March 2019.
According to Beatrice Mutoni, the school will address the challenge of poor service delivery in the country’s hotels and contribute in the implementation of government’s strategy to promote conference tourism. “The institute is expected to bring our hospitality industry to the global standard and will help already existing and new hotel brands in the country to get capable staff. The university would have enabled us to move forward to acquire professional knowledge in the service sector,” she added
The institution will have about 64 rooms designed as training places for hospitality education programmes both theory and practicals. In a bid to promote service industry, the Rwanda Hotels and Restaurants Association (RHRA) was created to champion the growth of hospitality sector.
Upon completion, the hospitality management institute will deliver diplomas in hospitality management, especially hotels management, and will serve as a college to train both working hotel operation professionals and aspiring hotel service workers and managers.
In additon to that, students have been going to Les Roche to acquire skills in hospitality management, but with the construction of the institute they will be taking their courses at the institution.