Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

Rwanda’s First Lady Jeannette Kagame has told an audience in Los Angeles (USA) of the special place cows hold in Rwandan society – as they have pulled thousands out of poverty.

“Heifer donations of cows hold a special meaning, their worth represent social ties deeply rooted in our traditions,” said Mrs Kagame at a ‘Beyond Hunger’ gala hosted by Heifer International on Friday evening.

The organisation hosted the 4th Annual “Beyond Hunger: A Place at the Table,” gala event in Los Angeles. The celebrity-filled event brought together advocates in the fight against extreme poverty.

Sharing a personal story, the First Lady told her audience that it was “a glass of milk” that brought President Paul Kagame and her together.

“I lend my voice to the Rwandans impacted by this partnership and testify that it could only be a natural fit in our values,” she added.

Since 1944 Heifer International has assisted more than 18.5 million families—79 million people—move from poverty to prosperity. In Rwanda, it has been operational for the last 15 years – and available data shows it has assisted more than 45,000 families to improve food security, a move that has helped government significantly cut extreme poverty.

Heifer International has been one of the partners to government in its ‘One Cow Per Family’ program under which, for years, the poorest homes have been given a free cow. Figures show more than 250,000 cows have been distributed.

In July this year, Pierre Ferrari, the chief executive officer and president of Heifer International, was in Rwanda.

“We are proud to have Her Excellency the First Lady of Rwanda, Madam Jeannette Kagame at our Beyond Hunger Gala,” said Ferrari at the event in Los Angeles yesterday.

Meanwhile, at the gala, Chris Gero of Yamaha Entertainment, emerged as the 2015 ‘BeyondHunger’ Noble Globe awardee.

“When sleeping women wake, mountains move,” he told guests.

KT Press

At least 200 eye patients with eye cataracts selected from across the country are set to receive free eye treatment at Ruhengeri Hospital in Musanze District.

The weeklong operation, provided by Barraqueur Foundation, an international organisation whose goal is to provide eyecare to help improve visual health, started yesterday.

The move aims at finding long lasting solution for people who suffer from cataract and to reduce blindness which is mostly caused by the cataract, according to Dr Elena Barraquer, an ophthalmologist and leader of Barraquer Foundation.

The 200 beneficiaries were selected from the over 1,000 cataract patients who were initially screened.

“Our goal is to try to eradicate blindness caused by cataract, since this is the leading cause of blindness in the world. It’s something that can often be solved with a simple procedure that we can perform and that offers a huge improvement in the way people live,” Barraquer said.

She added that procedures rely on a novel technique called ‘phacoemulsification,’ which involves using ultrasound to break down the cataract and then aspirating it through a canula.

This invasive technique means that after a 20-minute procedure, the patient has a permanent intraocular lens and a new view of the world, she said.

Dr Barraquer said malnutrition and extreme exposure to sunlight are some of the causes of cataracts, whose only solution is surgery.

Dr David Muhire, the head of department of ophaltomology at Ruhengeri Hospital, said the weeklong surgery exercise and screening is of a great value to Rwandan health services since it is being conducted by specialists.

Patients were upbeat that they could regain their sight after a long time with the visual impairment.

Emmanuel Dusabe, from Kibagabaga in Gasabo District, could not believe how the removal of cataract could be free.

“I was thinking that cataract surgery operation is very expensive but now I can be operated on free of charge. I am happy because they are going to help me regain the sight I lost years ago,” Dusabe said.

Dusabe encouraged other people who have visual impairments to seek medical attention.

Similar operations were carried out by the same foundation last year, an exercise at which more than 200 eye patients regained their sight.

According to World Health Organisation, cataracts are responsible for 48 per cent of cases of blindness around the world and many countries still do not have medical resources needed to remove them.

Over 40 million people around the world suffer from curable blindness caused by cataracts.

The clinic was organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with Barraquer Foundation.

The NewTimes

Members of the Rwanda Hotel Group (RHG), have urged financial institutions to give a grace period of at least a year to members who seek loans before they can start paying back.

RGH is an association that brings together owners of medium-sized hotels in the country.

But this seems to be a lost battle for members who have defaulted on bank loans as banks have placed auction notices in the media to sell off these hotels.

Several RHG members are now desperately trying to save their investments from being sold off cheaply to the highest bidder while banks are also doing their best to recover several billions of francs in non-performing loans (NPLs) held by these hotels.

Between hotels and banks is Private Sector Federation (PSF) which finds itself with an unattractive role of a mediator between disgruntled hoteliers and the banks.

“Hotels and banks are both our members and all we are trying to do is get them on the table to agree on an amicable way out because our interest as PSF is to ensure businesses succeed, not fail,” said Stephen Ruzibiza, PSF’s chief executive officer.

According to PSF, there are at least twenty distressed hotels trying to appeal against being auctioned off, not over one hundred as recently reported in the media.

Sylvester Mupenda, president of the RHG who talked to press in earlier interviews about the issue involving his hotel as well, declined to comment on the matter when contacted. When pressed further for a comment he said.

“We have not seen any effect, I don’t want to talk anymore.”

As the proprietor of Eldorado, one of the hotels listed for auction, Mupenda’s attitude is perhaps understandable; by talking to the press about his plight earlier, the distressed investor hoped to attract some attention to somehow halt, the auctioning of his hotel.

Apparently, the hotel was auctioned over two weeks ago.

Located on 27 KG Street, on 8th Avenue, just behind Rwanda Development Board, Eldorado employs 17 workers who had the same prayer as of last week, to be retained in their jobs by the new owner whom they were yet to meet.

The owner and hotel manager were both not on the premises at the time of visiting but according to a senior staffer, the investment is allegedly valued at over Rwf350 million (land and building).

However, it was auctioned off at just over Rwf200m to recover a loan of over Rwf260 million, apparently obtained from GroFin almost a decade ago to finance the investor to modify the place into a hotel from the apartment that it was previously.

But on Sunday, a source familiar with the transaction told The New Times that the takeover by the new owners had been halted after high level intervention although no details were immediately available to explain the development.

{{A troubled palace}}

Further deep in the city outskirts is Alpha-Palace, Kigali’s troubled palace, as it’s now quietly regarded; unlike the black couch with cracked leather covers at Eldorado, the reception area at Alpha which is listed as a three-star hotel, was much more respectable and cozy.

Lurched in one of the shiny cream leather seats was a young male Chinese guest speaking on the phone, rather loudly; the receptionist, Diana, with a calming smile, has been with the hotel for only a couple of months; she led me to the manager’s office.

“We are still in charge. The auction process was halted by court because there’s a disagreement on figures,” said the manager, a middle-aged man who has been with the hotel since 2012.

His room was a guest-suite turned into an office located on the first floor overlooking the swimming pool at the back of the hotel.

The least priced room at Alpha Palace which has over 46 rooms is US$70 a night; the hotel is three-star classified but that’s also the source of its current problems.

Alpha Palace which is valued at over Rwf2 billion is currently battling a consolidated credit facility of Rwf500 million from Bank of Kigali which was borrowed, according to the manager, to mainly upgrade its facilities ahead of RDB’s countrywide hotel classification exercise.

The hotel managed to get the stars but they haven’t translated into commercial success. “This endless story of us being auctioned has badly affected our performance, most of our clients have left us thinking someone else took over the facility,” he said.

Alex Baingana, the hotel’s proprietor has literally knocked on all doors in an attempt to save his lifetime investment from auction; he believes the bank is being unfair noting that selling off the property should be the very last resort after exploring all possible avenues.

But a source within Bank of Kigali intimated to The New Times that the hotel misused the credit and diverted it into other activities outside the planned spending.

However, the hotel blames its woes on what the manager describes as a dwindling clientele mainly because of tight competition from dozens of hotels that dominate its neighbourhood.

“Come and see what I am talking about,” he said as he guided me towards the balcony, pointing to the houses a few meters away from the hotel.

According to the manager, owners of most residential houses next to his hotel have turned them into motels which are stealthily diverting demand from Alpha Palace hotel hence contributing to its current financial woes.

The argument of stiff competition and reduced clientele is what most members of RHG will cite for their woes which they also blame on government for unfulfilled promises of a booming tourism sector that would generate incomes for these hotels.

{{Happy neigbours}}

But not everyone is complaining. For instance at Grand Legacy (GL), a newly established hotel directly opposite Alpha Palace, Christian Ndagijimana, the facility’s marketing manager says they have already become market leaders after just over a year in business.

Established just over a year ago, the 5-star classified hotel has 43 high-end rooms ranging between US$240 and US$420 for a night.

Ndagijimana says that within a short period of time, GL has become Kigali’s leading facility, based on statistics compiled by TripAdvisor, an American travel website providing reviews of travel-related content.

As to why smaller hotels like the one across the road are failing, the salesman says it’s because of a general lack of proper management, dysfunctional marketing strategies and lack of passion in what people do.

“So the way out for them is to really get proper management in place and get people who are passionate about the hotel business, you definitely don’t want someone who is just looking for a pay cheque at the end of the month,” he said.

But Ndagijimana also admits that getting top managers can be quite expensive for most hotels which want to run on low budgets.

{{So what’s the way out for struggling small hotels?}}

Although PSF’s advocacy can help to temporarily protect the hotels from the auctioneer’s hammer, perhaps a more realistic solution is with Celestin Rwabukumba, the CEO of the Rwanda Stock Exchange.

Rwabukumba says most companies, small or large, are struggling with a problem of being undercapitalised something he says can be addressed through raising money on the market; it worked well for Bank of Kigali, Bralirwa and most recently, Crystal telecom.

“It’s possible that up to 90 per cent of our businesses are undercapitalised. Many businesses start off wrongly with up to 80 per cent of their operating capital obtained from commercial banks and only a small section being their personal savings, that’s dangerous,” he said.

Jean Claunde Karayenzi, the Access Bank Rwanda managing director echoes similar views pointing out that businesses like hotels need longer term capital to allow them to borrow with longer repayment periods.

Recently, African Development Bank Group extended a $6 million line of credit to Access Bank to support Rwandan small and medium entrepreneurs; the credit line is long-term and will see borrowers enjoying friendly interest rates.

Rwabukumba says equity is not what one owns as some people wrongly perceive it, but rather the cash at hand because in practice, land can’t pay bills unless it’s liquidated into hard cash.

A platform has been created to enable small and medium enterprises like hotels to raise money from stock market and improve their capital bases.

“Unlike large companies that are required to have minimum capital requirements before listing on the stock market, the SME segment doesn’t require such conditionalities,” he said.

Surprisingly, the initiative is not new as it was approved about two years ago, but no SME has been able to debut although Rwabukumba revealed that at least four enterprises are in the process to pioneer the initiative.

The biggest challenge for SMEs, according to Rwabukumba is poor governance systems and accountability and that there’s a need to build their capacity to enable them access the market with confidence that investors’ money would be safe.

The NewTimes

A United Nations-LED global campaign that seeks to engage men and boys in advocating for women and girls’ rights and empowerment was launched in Kigali, yesterday, with a call to all Rwandans to embrace it.

Dubbed “HeForShe”, the campaign is spearheaded by UN-Women and calls upon all men and boys in the world to sign on for it online and pledge to tackle barriers that prohibit women and girls from fully participating in their country’s socio-economic development.

Hundreds of top government officials, members of civil society organisations and representatives of international development partners working in Rwanda as well as local entrepreneurs, who gathered at Parliament Buildings in Kigali yesterday, pledged their allegiance to the HeForShe campaign.

The campaign, which can be joined on its web site, www.heforshe.org, is an international initiative aimed at mobilising everyone, especially men and youth, to create and increase awareness on gender equality, the fight against gender-based violence and promotion of ICT for all.

President Paul Kagame is one of the global champions of the campaign.
Rwanda has pledged that at least 100,000 Rwandan men and boys will sign up on the campaign, joining one billion men and boys worldwide who will be mobilised to commit to the campaign.

{{Crucial Rwandan value}}

Senate president Bernard Makuza, who was the guest of honour at the launch, called on all Rwandans to join President Kagame in supporting the initiative because respect for women’s rights has become a crucial Rwandan value.

“Raising awareness about the role of men in promoting the equality between men and women is important. Let’s make our President’s pledge to support gender equality our own,” Makuza said.

By signing up on the HeForShe campaign, people pledge that they are counted among “billions of men who believe equality for women is a basic human right that benefits us all” and “commit to taking action against gender discrimination and violence in order to build a more just and equal world.”
Some 461,625 men from across the world have joined the campaign while 2,692 men in Rwanda have signed on to the campaign, leaving activists with a task to keep mobilising more people to sign up.

“We are called upon to support the campaign because it’s for a good cause. We should join hands with our President to make the campaign a success,” said Jacqueline Kamanzi Masabo, the executive secretary of the National Women’s Council.
{{
Rwandan women in leadership}}

Rwanda has been at the forefront of promoting gender equality, with the 2014 World Economic Forum report ranking the country as Africa’s best performer in closing the gender gap, and the seventh out of 142 countries on the global index.

The country also keeps a record of highest representation of women in Parliament with Rwandan women occupying 64 per cent of seats.
But activists say the advancements in gender equality are not enough and under the HeForShe campaign Rwanda has pledged to bridge the gender digital divide and attain parity in ICT access by the year 2020, triple girls’ enrollment in technical and vocational training to advance women’s employment opportunities, and eradicate gender-based violence in all its forms.

“We would like to thank all boys and men in Rwanda who have played a role in empowering women and promoting their rights. We hope that every Rwandan will play their role in implementing the pledges we have made to bridge the gender gaps,” the minister for gender and family promotion, Oda Gasinzigwa, said at the launch of the HeForShe campaign yesterday.

The NewTimes

The Government has applauded news of the successful testing of the first gas samples on the Kivu-Watt Methane Gas plant, a project on Lake Kivu expected to add some 25 megawats to the national electricity grid.

“This is a welcome development. It will add value to our energy mix,” said energy Minister James Musoni, in a brief text message to Saturday Times.

Testing of the gas was done Thursday night after the successful re-installation of the first of four pairs of separators and subsequent extraction of the first samples, according to Jarmo Gummerus, the country director of ContourGlobal.

Gummerus said in a phone interview yesterday that the second pair of separators will be installed by end of the month while full gas production and subsequent commissioning of the plant will take place before the end of October.

American energy firm ContourGlobal was given a 25-year concession to produce 100 megawatts from Lake Kivu, the world’s only methane rich water body, and the successful completion of the first phase will be received as a major boost to the investor.

The multi-million dollar project is only in its first phase which was used as a pilot study for engineers to gain experience since nothing of its kind had ever been done before.

“We had no luxury to copy and paste because everything here was being done for the first time, it’s a learning phase,” Gummerus said in a previous interview.

As a result, several deadlines in the past were never met, starting with one in 2012 as complications kept emerging.

It has taken engineers over three million man-hours to witness the first gas flare since works begun seven years ago, and they will now have the luxury of copying and pasting on the next phases of the project.

Gummerus believes works on the second, third and final phases of the venture will be accomplished much faster because of experience and lessons obtained from the first phase, which he described in an earlier interview as a ‘lake-breaking.’

Earlier this month, The New Times was granted access to the plant located on Lake Kivu in Karongi District and found engineers in a head scratching mood as they tried to fix last-minute technical malfunctions that had cropped up involving the ‘separators’.

The separators, long and wide metallic pipe drums weighing several hundred tonnes, separate gas from water before it’s processed into electricity.

But after sinking the first pair of separators into the lake, two months ago, it emerged that they were not functioning as expected and had to be reinstalled, a process that required flying in expert divers from South Africa and engineers from Germany.

The past few weeks have been spent troubleshooting; and the successful gas flaring exercise Thursday night means that the problems have finally been fixed and that the plant is nearly ready for fulltime production – a relief to both the investor and government.

“We should expect to have electricity from the plant to the national grid in mid-October,” Gummerus said.

When that happens, it will be an important milestone in Rwanda’s quest to conquer its energy inadequacy as pressure continues to mount from an ever-growing manufacturing base.
{{
Powering Rwanda}}

Rwanda is currently being powered by an installed energy capacity of 161.2 megawatts but the country’s target is to have 563 megawatts by 2018; the addition of 25 megawatts from KivuWatt next month will be a firm step towards that goal.

The country is also set to start importing another 30 or so megawatts from Kenya on a five-year long arrangement expected to start late this year, according to sources at the Rwanda Energy Group, the firm charged with electricity distribution.

Further on into the future, importation of another 400mw from Ethiopia will boost Rwanda’s energy capacity to adequately fuel a country whose economy is expected to attain double digit growth by 2018.

The NewTimes