Rwandan Blazing a Trail for Women in Construction

Enatha Cyuzuzo is one of very few women site engineers in Rwanda’s booming construction sector.

At only 26, you will find her on sites supervising the men and women she employs, some far older than herself.

As a civil engineer, she ventured into construction in 2019 after graduating, setting up a company that bids for housing projects in eastern Rwanda.

One of her employees, 39-year-old Martine Nyirahirwa, says Ms. Cyuzuzo is humble and respectful to her employees, which “makes it smooth working with her.”

Ms. Nyiraharwa says her boss’s work has even inspired one of her children, and “now he wants to be an engineer just like her.”

Fidela Tuyishime, another employee, says she is “proud of working on a site supervised by a woman like me.”

Ms. Cyuzuzo draws house plans and leads their construction on sites.

She says this is a job that has been “very challenging” – because of a mindset that it is a male job and some men’s behaviour towards women.

“Some think that you cannot deal with a girl on a job only… You need to act like a man to be able to work with men and show them that you are a smart girl,” she says.

She wants to inspire more girls to join engineering and change the gender imbalance on construction sites.

BBC /Shakirat Sadiq