Rwanda: Rwanda Opens Order Books For Its First Bond sale

Rwanda:
Rwanda Opens Order Books For Its First Bond sale

Rwanda has opened order books for investors on its highly anticipated first bond sale, one of the banks managing the deal said Wednesday. The landmark issue looks set to satisfy investors' hunger for yield and help the landlocked Sub-Saharan country towards financial independence.

The country aims to raise $400 million through a bond with a 10-year maturity. Regardless of demand, the size of the deal isn't expected to rise.

Investors can now place their early orders for the bond.

Officials from the country have been meeting investors in Asia, Europe and the U.S. for a week in preparation for the 10-year dollar-denominated bond.

The proposed deal follows five other bond sales from African countries this year, as investors scrambling for yields are increasingly looking to the continent for higher, if riskier returns than they would get in more developed markets.

The issuer is rated B by both Standard and Poor's and Fitch Ratings. BNP Paribas and Citigroup are managing the deal.

Write to Serena Ruffoni at serena.ruffoni@dowjones.com
Copyright © 2013 Dow Jones Newswires

Burundi mobile phone subscriptions leap 17 Per Cent

Burundi:
Mobile phone subscriptions leap 17%

(Reuters) - Increasing competition between Burundi's mobile phone operators helped to boost the number of subscriptions in the country by 17 percent last year, telecoms regulator ARCT said on Wednesday.

Mobile phone subscriptions in the central African country rose to 2.24 million in 2012 as competition between the five operators reduced prices.

Constaque Hakizimana, who is in charge of mobile networks at ARCT, said the cell phone had become a basic need for many, thanks in part to cheap internet browsing and additional services such as money transfers.

The coffee-producing nation of more than 8 million people had only 270,000 mobile phone users in 2007.

Hakizimana said that subscriber numbers are expected to keep growing but he did not provide a specific forecast.

U-com, owned by Egypt's Orascom, controls 64 percent of the Burundi market. The other operators are Econet, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless, Lacell SU from Nepal, Africell, owned by VTL Holdings of Dubai, and state-owned ONAMOB. (Reporting by Patrick Nduwimana; Editing by Duncan Miriri and David Goodman)

Source: Reuters.Com

Burundi: Agriculture Sector Taps Into Belgian Funds

Burundi:
Agriculture Sector Taps Into Belgian Funds

Bujumbura — The international donor community is showing signs of renewed interest in Burundi's research and development (R&D), with a Belgian initiative aiming to rebuild human capacity and research facilities in a major agricultural sciences institute.

The Burundi civil war brought research activities across the country to a standstill when it broke out in 1993, according to Nkurunziza Gelase a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (ISABU), Burundi.

During the war, Gelase tells SciDev.Net, seven ISABU research centres across the country were inaccessible, compromising research activities. Some research centres were burnt down and important hybrid crop varieties such as 'Kitale maize' were lost.

Since the war ended in 2005, R&D funding has been trickling back into the country. A number of donors are funding research projects and institutions.

One such project is the Institutional and Operational Support Programme for the Agricultural Sector (PAIOSA), an initiative by the Belgium Technical Cooperation - the Belgian development agency - to provide ISABU with institutional and operational support for the agricultural sector.

The project, which kicked off in December 2012 and will last until 2017, aims to rebuild the institute's human capacity and research facilities. Some of its priorities include buying new equipment and building new laboratories.

"We intend to create stronger human and infrastructural capabilities at ISABU [to enhance] organisational effectiveness," says Valerie Claes, international technical assistant for the programme.

BTC has also established a competitive research fund of more than US$220,000. To tap into this, researchers are expected to come up with innovative research ideas to address national agricultural problems.

According to Denis Manirambona, UN consultant on food security in Burundi, the competitive research fund component is a welcome move as it will encourage researchers at ISABU to come up with good research ideas to help address the problems facing agriculture.

The programme will also enhance information dissemination from the institute.
Source: AllAfrica.Com

Rwanda Clarifies DRC Position On Cessation Clause

Rwanda:

Rwanda Clarifies DRC Position On Cessation Clause
Rwanda has dismissed media reports suggesting that DR Congo does not approve of the implementation of the cessation clause which removes refugee status on Rwandan refugees spread across the world.

The DRC North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku told MONUSCO's Radio Okapi yesterday that his government had rejected the Pretoria resolutions at the Ministerial meeting in South Africa on April 18 where Rwanda renewed its desire to have all refugees returning home or remaining in host countries as nationals not refugees.

According to Radio Okapi, the North Kivu Governor said that his country had refused such agreement, because it would automatically turn the Rwandan refugees into Congolese.

Speaking on American broadcaster VOA Tuesday morning, Rwanda's Minister of disaster management and refugee affairs, Ms Seraphine MUKANTABANA said the media reports were wrong and misleading. The minister added that the Radio Okapi report was "shocking" as she had not heard anything like that officially from DRC.

Minister Mukantabana said the DRC official delegation to Pretoria had instead indicated that it would seek the guidance from the Congolese parliament on how to deal with the cessation clause issue. Congo's delegation was led by interior minister, Richard Muyej.

Responding to critics of Rwanda government who have been wondering why the cessation clause program favours only Rwandans who fled the country from 1959 to 1998, the Minister said those are refugees who fled on general cause like genocide while the rest are in exile due to individual problems which could be also attended on individual basis.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR and countries hosting Rwanda refugees agreed in December 2011 that the refugees would no longer be called so after June 31, 2013. Among the options provided was repatriation back to Rwanda and local integration in host countries.

Rwanda also told a UN conference reviewing the status of Rwandan refugees living in different countries that it will provide them with national documents so they seize to be called "refugees".

At the Ministerial meeting in Pretoria (South Africa) on April 18, Rwanda renewed its desire to have all refugees choosing their country. However, considering that most of the refugees have established their lives in host countries, it will not be necessary to return to Rwanda.

"Rwanda's delegation outlined a number of steps it has taken and will continue to implement to support the respective solutions including the issuing of national passports for Rwandans who opt to stay in their current host countries," said UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards at a press briefing on April 19, 2013. In her VOA interview, Minister Mukantabana said there is outstanding cooperation between Rwanda and the DRC as it is with other 12 countries on refugee affairs - arguing that what the North Kivu governor claimed was not known to Rwanda.

"I do not know where, how and who says that DRC refused to cooperate... I know that Congo agreed to work with us and that it would take the issue to the Legislature for review and approval," she said. There have been developments of settling refugee Affairs in Rwanda since 2003, when the national dialogue conference was introduced including Diaspora delegations attending various programs which have been put in place to facilitate Rwandans living outside to remain in constant contact with their country.

This has resulted into the returning of most Rwandans to their country including the recent 12,000 mainly from Democratic Republic of Congo.

Source: AllAfrica.com

Tanzania: Kikwete Blames Colonial Legacy for Africa's Conflicts

Tanzania: 

Kikwete Blames Colonial Legacy for Africa's Conflicts

PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete has slammed policies of former colonial masters for most of present internal and cross-border conflicts in Africa, noting, however that the continent is better-off at present than it was in the past two decades.

"Boundaries drawn by the colonialists between African countries and policies such as divide and rule have resulted into quarrels along tribal, ethnic and religious lines," Mr Kikwete said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

The president made the remarks in his address to the 368th African Union (AU) ministerial meeting on the Peace and Security Council held to discuss the political situation in Madagascar, ahead of elections slated for that country in July.

"There are people of same culture and background but still kill one another because of trivial matters and this is because they were divided by the colonialists," Mr Kikwete noted with concern. He also blamed what he described as a class of politicians in Africa who because of greed for power and wealth, collaborated with the former colonialists to fuel conflicts on the continent.

Mr Kikwete was bitter that the class of politicians was willing to sell their people for power and wealth and subject the population in their respective countries to sufferings. Nevertheless, the president was happy that almost all conflicts in the continent are either under resolution or being managed at various levels.

"Africa is better today than it was over the past two-decades, military coups that were the order of the day during that time as well as unconstitutional and undemocratic change of power are at present not tolerated," he noted.

At the same occasion, the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Ramtane Lamamra, hailed Tanzania for its contribution to the liberation struggle. "Equally, Tanzania still plays an active role in the solving and resolution of conflicts in Africa.

I would also like to commend President Kikwete for his commitment to solving conflicts in the continent," Ambassador Lamamra said. He cited the clashes in which President Kikwete had a role in solving as the post-election violence in Kenya after the 2007 General Election in that country as well as unrests in the Comoros and Ivory Coast, among others.

And as the AU is set to mark the 50th Anniversary next month, Amb. Lamamra said the Golden Jubilee should be used to consolidate peace and manage ongoing conflicts in Africa. The predecessor of AU, the then Organisation of African Union (OAU) was formed in 1963. Regarding Madagascar, he said all stakeholders have been engaged in mediation, noting, however, that despite progress which has been attained there are still challenges which need to be addressed.

Speaking earlier, Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Bernard Membe, who is also the current Chair of the AU Peace and Security Council, said the meeting was among interventions by the AU to finding a lasting solution to political stalemate in Madagascar. The meeting will be briefed by former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano on the progress of ending disputes among conflicting parties in that country.

Chissano has been a mediator in the conflict under the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Established in the year 2004, the council is charged with prevention, resolution and management of conflicts in the African continent.

BY ALVAR MWAKYUSA
Source: allafrica.com

Kenya at a crossroads in quest for stronger ties in global commerce

Kenya:
Kenya at a crossroads in quest for stronger ties in global commerce



Workers prepare fruits for export at the Eldoret International Airport. The new government is expected to sign new agreements to boost trade. FILE


President Uhuru Kenyatta’s inaugural speech made it patent that enhancing regional integration and promoting Kenya’s external trade would be a priority of the new government.

However, with the pressure brought about by the confirmation of the EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreement negotiating deadline as October 2014, one of the more pressing challenges now facing Kenya’s government is how to resolve the cleavage among East African Community (EAC) States on whether to ratify their 2007 Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.

The five EAC States initialled an EPA in 2007 but further efforts towards ratification have stalled. While Kenya, propelled by its classification as a non-Least Developing Country (LDC), has been individually impelled to ratify the EPA, other EAC States — all of which are classified as LDCs — have been reluctant to sign the EPA.

Kenya has thus been pressed between maintaining solidarity with the region, and a considerable risk of being relegated to a less favourable GSP trading regime by the EU. But now that EU Parliament has endorsed the council’s compromise proposal on Regulation 1528, Kenya has to act.

Can these two contesting objectives — the need for EAC solidarity in external trade agreements and maintenance of Kenya’s preferential market access to the EU by ratifying its EPA agreement — be reconciled? Perhaps.

Kenya has two options. It can opt out of the EAC solidarity and ratify an individual 2007 ‘interim’ EPA with the EU, or it can prevail upon both the EU and its EAC partner States to sign a minimalist EPA that sticks to the essential legal requirements of World Trade Organisation (WTO) compliancy and discard 2007 agreements on ‘WTO plus’ issues — export taxes, bilateral safeguards for infant industry, most favoured nation (MFN), trade in services, and development (liberalisation compensation) —which now hold back the EAC-EU EPA agreement. The first option would be outright unpopular with the rest of the EAC.

The second option would be unpopular with both the EAC and the EU. But it would be in line with the EU Council Regulation 1528 article 3 (b) of 2007 and perhaps could be used to contain disruption in regional (political) integration.

The exigencies of a looming negotiating deadline make it almost inevitable that Kenya will go for option one. Both options are unpalatable for Kenya’s regional relations and the new government must up its economic diplomacy now in containing the inevitable political fallout expected from its exigency to sign an EPA.

First it would be important to clarify that even though Kenya is expected to lose out on custom revenues if it ratifies an EPA, those fiscal losses are more precise and manageable than the negative multiplier effects of preference erosion.

Kenya would suffer more from preference erosion (over 50 per cent of its exports would face a tax hike of up to more than 20 per cent) while suffering low custom revenue losses of between 0.4 per cent and 4.29 per cent as a percentage of total tax revenues.

The GSP tariff imposition would raise the cost of dutiable Kenyan exports by about 5.8 per cent, potentially wiping out present margins for exporters.

Besides Kenya now faces even stiffer competition in the horticulture industry from countries such as Colombia and Israel which already have Free Trade Agreements with the EU.

Therefore, faced with the choice between fiscal or trade losses, Kenya would be hit less by the fiscal losses than by the trade losses. In any case, the EPA is estimated to generate about Sh10.4 billion annually in increased trade.

If Kenya wanted to use any little negotiating capital it may have left to try and save EAC solidarity, then it would be to persuade both parties, the EU and the rest of the EAC States, to abandon those areas of their 2007 interim agreement that are subsidiary to a basic goods-only FTA.

This would entail discarding agreements reached in WTO-plus areas such as development funding, export taxes and MFN, infant industry safeguards and so on.

Source: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com

Uganda: 

China Waives Tax On Uganda Goods

Kampala — Business people exporting goods to China, will this year benefit from a waiver of customs duty and tariffs.

The Chinese Ambassador to Uganda ,Zhao Yali, disclosed this during a Media reception at the Chinese Embassy in Kampala last week.

Zhao said, "From this year, 95% of Uganda's goods exported to China can enter the Chinese market with no customs duty and tariff."

He added, "Our economic cooperation has over the years developed smoothly and in 2012, bilateral trade (between Uganda and China) increased to $538 million, an increase of 34.6% from 2011."

He was also quick to point out that last year alone, 45 Chinese enterprises registered in Uganda with planned investments amounting to $86 million.

China has in recent years surged forward as one of Uganda's biggest trading partners with the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) estimating that between 1993 and 2012, 310 Chinese enterprises were registered in Uganda with planned investments of $683 million and creating 33,000 job opportunities for locals in the process.

According to statistics from the Chinese Embassy, China issued 10,000 visas to Ugandans, China also offered 40 government scholarships and 404 slots for training courses for Ugandan government officials.

Last year, the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) signed a farm down agreement with Tullow Oil for the exploration of oil in the country.

China's Export and Import Bank during the year also agreed to provide $350m buyer's credit for the construction of the Kampala-Entebbe Express Highway.

The China Road and Bridge Construction Company is also undertaking various projects in the country including the construction of the first ever tarmac road in the Karamoja region in North Eastern Uganda.

The Ambassador also revealed that China is committing $20 billion of credit to Africa on transnational and trans-regional infrastructure development in areas like agriculture and manufacturing as well as the energy sectors.

BY EMMA ONYANGO
Source: AllAfrica.Com

Uganda: Export Promotions Board probed over corruption

Uganda:
Export Promotions Board probed over corruption

The Procurement Authority has written to police probing alleged corruption in the Uganda Export Promotions Board (UEPB), to ensure that proper procedures were adhered to in the procurement of certain contentious items by the entity.

In a letter to the criminal intelligence and investigations directorate boss dated February 26, the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) noted that it was important for the investigators to ascertain that procurement procedures had been adhered to.

The letter follows an earlier request by the police seeking guidance on a number of issues under probe, among them the procurement of a mural for an exhibition at sh12.7m; procuring services for content development and translation services at sh6.4m and the hiring of cultural performers to entertain guests at sh3.1m.

In the response signed by Cornelia Sabiti, the Executive Director PPDA directed the police to among others task that procurement unit of the board on the matter.
"The procurement and disposal unit is required to confirm that the items are provide fro in the entity's procurement plan and are budgeted for in the approved budget for the financial years in accordance with the PPDA Regulation 105," the letter signed by Sabiti reads.

The letter also noted that the authority was required to initiate procurements using PP form 20 in keeping with PPDA regulations, which were contravened. The board used competitive bidding in relation to murals deal and direct bidding for the services of a Chinese translator, which police say, basing on the guidelines stipulated by PPDA was wrong.

CIID boss Grace Akullo could not be reached for comment as she was reported away attending a national function. However, police sources yesterday said detectives probing the alleged scam had established after questioning members of the disposal unit that procedures had been seriously flouted.

According to investigation the mural was procured at sh12,746,400 for the Chinese Expo 2010, to depict the theme: a better city a better life while the content development and translation services were procured at sh6,422,650 and the cultural performers to entertain a Chinese delegation that visited Uganda at sh3,119,500.

The police last year launched a probe into the export promotions board over allegations involving several top officials, including the executive director, Florence Kata estimated at over sh50m, part of a wider probe into money spent on various trade fairs abroad.

The money was spent in the financial years 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12 and allegedly misused. The alleged flouting of procedures, sources said, adversely affects three top officials of the board-Kata, who also doubled as the accounting officer; the director finance Fred Kibedi and the procurement officer, Anne Karungi.

In the period under probe, the board participated in three expos-the Shanghai Expo in China, the International Trade Fair and exhibition in South Sudan and the Yeosu Trade Fair in South Korea.

Kata is also being probed over allegations that she irregularly appointed William Babigumira as her deputy without the consent of the board which investigators say amounts to abuse of office.

"They have sought the interpretation of the director of public prosecution (DPP) over the matter. Kata and Babigumira have since appeared before the police in connection with the allegations.

The police are also probing allegations that Kata's son, Lionel Barigye was among the people the board funded for a trade fair in Germany, culminating in his company receiving a refund of sh 2m as a 50% refund of fund used in travel and accommodation.

Barigye's company, Cyber Agricultural Produce (CAP) International Limited, received about sh2m as a 50% refund of funds used for travel and accommodation to attend the Fruit Logistica fair from February 8 to 10, 2012 in Germany.

By Steven Candia
Source: http://www.newvision.co.ug