Institute of Quantity Surveyors Reaches Out To Polytechnic Students

The Rwanda Institute of Quantity Surveyors (RIQS) has conducted a student’s outreach program aimed at creating awareness, recruiting more members following the submission of a parliamentary bill that will recognize the role of quantity surveyors (QS) in Rwanda.

The institute is mandated to regulate, scale, and promote the core values of the QS profession, have well trained professionals in the construction industry with relevant combined expertise in efficiently undertaking financial, contractual, and administrative management of all types of construction developments.

RIQS Chairman, QS Charles Lugira said that they want more young Rwandans to join the organization to change the status of the profession and challenges from within.

“Since we have the support of the government, we need you to be at the center of solving the current problems highlighted in the Auditor General’s reports and the Parliament Public Accounts Committee (PAC),” Rugira said during the visitation held on November 20, 2024 at Rwanda Polytechnic (RP) Kigali College.

Though the Rwandan QS career is young and has a lack of qualified QS in the profession, Lugira said that there are plans to increase capacity locally and use available and external expertise to develop the industry which only started in 2009.

Lugira said that Rwanda needs more QS professionals with Master’s, PhDs to reduce the manpower gaps to hire foreign experts but also see Rwandans hired by international firms because the label of being Rwandan is highly valued.

“We need more QS in the OAG office, the Ombudsman’s office. We need you to join the forces (Police and RDF) and don’t fear, because that is how we are going to show our impact- to have persons who can provide proper reports to the OAG,” he said.

To reach this status, Lugira called for a change in the naming of the QS diploma offered at RP colleges which is still named as a “Diploma in Civil Engineering (Quantity Surveying)”, despite the fact that Quantity Surveying and Civil Engineering are two separate, independent professions.

Lugira said that the document should be called a “Higher diploma in QS” so as to stress the importance of the career and its status in the country and region.

“As the government works to define all professions within Rwanda’s built environment, raising public and education awareness of the distinctions between these professions, and the qualifications, particularly within the education sector, remains a significant concern,” he said.

The Head of Department Civil Engineering at RP Kigali College, Jean de Dieu Iyakare, said they will work on the concern of changing the name of the diploma and also want to have an MoU to advance the process of improving the QS curriculum as soon as possible.

“We lack qualified teachers in Bachelors of Technology in this college and we also need supervisors as we start the Capstone projects (https://elearning.rp.ac.rw/enrol/index.php?id=4815) which will be relevant in solving the existing challenges in the sector,” Iyakare said.

Based on the fact that RP involved RIQS in developing its curriculum in the Bachelors of Technology (BTECH), Iyakare called for more support to further improve training programs to grow local skills and capacity of RP in forming future QS professionals.

QS Frederic Nyaminani, the Vice Chairman RIQS showed the existing challenges which the QS profession could solve within and in other sectors.

He showed that the Industry lacks independence- which the new law in parliament is coming to solve but disputes on project execution still exist with at least 7 projects resulting in arbitration every year (KIAC report).

“For instance, the OAG report shows a 52% increment of cost of budget- meaning they didn’t know what the project was about and thus a difference in cost during the implementation and end product- which normally ends in court cases,” Nyaminani said.

Inspiring Future QS Professionals:

Ugandan QS Dr. Francis SSALI Pyraah encouraged the students who will become accountants of construction projects, to be serious, neat, very organized, clear in measures but also have organized documents to deliver a project and change the status quo.

“There are not very many QS in Rwanda and that is not good. So the more you market yourself, the more you will be marketable and recognized. Therefore, you need to be registered with the institution but also pursue further studies,” Saali said.

Saali urged the students to look beyond the construction sector and seek opportunities in other areas such as banking, mining, energy, and environment among others.

Students said that it is hard to get internships, employed and asked for opportunity to be provided for fresh graduates to be hired to teach in secondary schools (construction section) were some lessons are on QS, and also for alumni to train first year students in RPs so as to contribute to nation building a career advancement.

As a living testimony, QS Consolée Iradukunda, a former IPRC student and now Project QS at REAL Contractors Ltd- says it was hard to get a job after graduation but patience and hardwork has reached her far.

As a woman in a male dominated field, she said that it was challenging to do assignments in Civil Engineering (CE) and with advice she joined the QS department where she fit.

“From that day I loved QS and started diving into it. Today I am enjoying the job because I oversee everything in projects. My first project was Agaseke building in Gasabo district, I didn’t know anything and doubted if I would become a registered QS even when I had good marks in school.

“I spent six months doing an internship with no pay but I was on target to learn and now I have a good job which makes me proud of being in this industry. Therefore, this profession is possible,”

“We were nine in the class, but many of us dropped out and we were discouraged by students asking us what subject that was, but I managed to succeed,” Iradukunda said.

Iradukunda said that being patient and resilient and allowing oneself to learn is what she did to succeed, despite the fears of not knowing and depending on experiential knowledge from others in the field.