Effect of COVID-19 Containment Measures on the Performance of Building Construction Projects in Kigali Rwanda

COVID-19 has affected many economies across different sectors and governments have taken different containment measures across the world to protect lives. The objective of this research was to assess the effect of COVID-19 containment measures taken by the government of Rwanda on performance of construction projects with case study of Green Hills School expansion project in Kigali. Many researches are done across the world to analyse this effect but not in Kigali, Rwanda and that's the gap this research filled. In order to reach the research objective, the study used descriptive and correlational design method to study the complex relationships of the dependent variable (project performance) and the independent variables (restriction of non-essential movements, curfews, social/physical distancing & closure of international borders). The study findings indicated that the four COVID-19 containment measures, that is non-essential movement, curfews, social / physical distancing and closure of international borders negatively affected performance of construction projects in Rwanda up to the tune of 58.2%. It was also established that apart from curfews, all the other measures had a significant effect. Specifically, it was demonstrated that social / physical distancing had the strongest effect followed by closure of international borders then restriction of non-essential movement. Given the study findings, the study recommends that in order to have a balance in the performance of construction projects while also maintaining COVID-19 measures, the government should review the containment measures, that is non-essential movement, curfews, social / physical distancing and closure of international borders. Specifically, more emphasis should be placed on curfews compared to the other measures given its insignificant effect.