Kigali Innovation City, an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) park, is a Government of Rwanda flagship project designed to accelerate development of Rwanda’s ICT sector and transform Rwanda into a knowledge-based economy.

The Innovation City will be built on a 61.3 ha space within the Kigali special economic zone (SEZ), which is 10 km to the east of Kigali's Central Business District (CBD) and 3 km north-east of the existing airport.

Kigali Innovation City will house various facilities including a research & development (R&D) facility, ICT training centres, software build and test labs, specialized institutions of higher learning and a business incubation centre.

Built around the ICT Centre of Excellence, the city will comprise all other elements of a city such as corporate buildings, retail, leisure, sports, accommodation, education, health care and others.

The Innovation Centre of Excellence will be the physical home in which systematic interplay will take place between local and multinational ICT companies and a consortium of universities led by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Rwanda.

Other features of Kigali Innovation City include:

• Assistance in business establishment (one stop centre, SEZ status application) and entrepreneurial development including incubator and capacity building programmes

• Good quality urban environment - housing for managers and easy access to a substantial pool of well-trained and motivated labour

• Collaboration between industry and academia (CMU)

• Clean and safe working environment.

• Innovation Centre of Excellence that will house cluster-shared facilities:
1. Solutions centre hosting a R&D facility for innovators to produce blueprints of their products and services;
2. Skills Academy emanating from the CMU-R campus
3. Innovation/incubation growth centre facilitating startups with incubation, capacity development, funding at various growth stages, and market access.

Financing amount & structure required -
The total project capital outlay of the project excluding taxes is USD $1,953,710,920.

Expected internal rate of return (IRR) and return on investment (ROI) on the project -

• Entire project has an net present value (NPV), projected for 20 years, at USD $511 million (construction taking place in the first
10 years) and IRR at 20.5%.

• The first phase of the project will generate USD $14.3 million per year out of rentals assuming an 80% occupancy rate of the Innovation Centre of Excellence.

1. At a 4% interest rate, the project will be repayable over 30 years with a 5 year grace period
2. Semi-annual repayments (principle plus interest) would amount to USD $5.4 million