Category: News

{{The Horizon group of companies is set to exhibit their infrastructural proficiency by highlighting and showcasing achievements in a Trade Fair Expo at Gikondo.}}

The group CEO Eugene Haguma told Igihe.com that Horizon group wants to improve the country’s infrastructure by constructing more paved roads and at the same time promote the agriculture sector through pyrethrum planting.

Haguma said Horizon the consortium of three subsidiary companies- Construction, Logistics and SOPYRWA will put emphasis on the growth of pyrethrum that will be turned into pesticides by SOPYRWA.

“So far pyrethrum flowers have increased four folds from 209 metric tons two years ago to 700 metric tons in 2010-2011 seasons,” He revealed.

The company’s consultant Franco Kanimba noted that Rwanda is among the top three countries with the special type of pyrethrum from Tanzania and Australia.

Kanimba disclosed that dryers have been built for farmers and SOPYRWA has created a fund to help farmers acquire loans through Umurenge SACCO and direct loans to farmers in order to acquire basic needs like mattresses, iron sheets and medical insurance also known as mutuelle de santé .

“We have also distributed 240 tons of organic fertilizer free of charge to farmers,” he boasted.

The Horizon Construction Company on its part wants to improve infrastructure in the country and provide better housing facilities.

According to Haguma, the company has reduced construction fees and now the price per kilometer was brought down from US$ 1million to US$ 0.6millon.

He further noted that in the past one year the company has achieved a lot including 16.5 Km of paved roads in the city and several buildings were constructed, the Kigali Public Library and Rubavu border post among others.

“We have the capacity to do more- this was the first local company to construct an Asphalt concrete road in the country,” he said adding: “Once you do quality work, be rest assured you can compete even with the giants like china who seem to be taking over the African market.”

In order to improve its capacity, the company has been working with commercial banks that have invested US$ 5Million in new machines and trucks out of which 70% has been credits from local banks like ZIGAMA CSS and BCR while 30% has been financed from company cash flows.

In terms of promoting descent houses in the country, Horizon Construction Company has set aside 30 hectares of land that will be used for a pilot project to construct low cost housing that will later be availed to eligible resident’s thorough mortgages.

He said current smooth partnership with banks is expected to facilitate the process.

The Horizon Logistics also focuses on supporting Rwandan peace-keeping forces in Sudan’s Darfur region. “We are in charge of maintenance of vehicles and some requirements to the soldiers in peace keeping mission,” Haguma said.

{{MTN latest promotion ‘Faranga Y’ello Y’ello’ has for the second week given out Frw 11M to 11 subscribers who won Frw 1M each and came from different parts of the country, in an event held Tuesday at 11am at Kimironko Market in Kigali.}}

Speaking to {igihe.com}, Alain Numa, MTN’s officer in charge, sponsorship and coordination said, “This promotion is MTN’s program to celebrate 13 years on market in Rwanda and to do this we have to celebrate together with our clients in the sense of uplifting their standards of living.”

Among the winners Goderiva Mukamusugi a Community Health Worker at Rukara Health Center in Kayonza district said, “I were with friends and received a call notifying me that I had won and said ‘God has really fulfilled my plans’ as I had requested earlier though friends could keep on telling me it’s a lie.”

She says she’s a mother to a boy with transplanted kidney whose operation cost a lot of money and the family remained bankrupt.

“I opened a small Boutique around and prayed to God to help me get money to develop it and help my son to study. Now God has responded positively,” Mukamusugi who was accompanied by her husband John Bosco Nkusi and her daughter one Lydia excitedly said.

She said she is going to mobilize other people to always pray because that God is always there to respond saying it’s a miracle given but not worked for.

Sarah Nyiranshimiyimana of Rukoma Sector, Kamonyi district in the southern province, also a winner of Frw 1M said that she is going to expand her retail shop with stock worth Frw 300, 000 and start a bar along side.

Among other winners Issa Mutabazi of Musaza, Kirehe district who is involved in supplying cows to meat parkers in Kigali note, “I was ridding my Motorcycle around and received a call about it”.

“ I couldn’t believe it until today when they took us to the MTN Centre to sign for our money. I thought it was a plan by MTN with some officials that mobilize and bribe people upcountry and bring them as winners but now I realize that there is a free and fair promotional event because there’s no official either known or related to me from MTN.”

This time, out of 11 winners of a Million each, four were females and seven were males.

At the end of the promotion, one grand winner will go away with Frw13M as the biggest single cash prize ever given out by MTN Rwanda.

To enter the draw, a prepaid customer must have recharged a minimum of Frw 200 on the previous day.

The numbers of the customers who meet the eligibility requirement will be picked at random during the live draw with automotive machine and the winner will be called upon to notify him of the winning.

The promotion is open to MTN prepaid and postpaid subscribers, excluding MTN employees and their families, MTN agents, and anyone else professionally connected with the promotion.

Faranga Y’ello Y’ello’s promotion shall award a total of Frw 63million to lucky subscribers and will run for 5 weeks from August 22, to Sept 25.

The telecom company is also giving out an offer to people with sim cards that have spent at least 60 days and above not operational to re-insert them and start to operate and the airtime doubles per loading.

Toppingup airtime to new sim cards bought also doubles and the offer will last in three months.

{{Court was this Monday prompted to adjourn the case involving embattled Victoire Ingabire and her co accused until 7 September 2011 following a breakdown in translation.}}

(EDITOR:..{developing story})

{{The 2011 beauty queen of Kibungo Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Education (INATEK) is a 22- year old Odette Uwingabire who was crowned August 3 in Eastern Province.}}

Odette wore print number 8 while Nadine number 1 and a student in first year came as first runner up and the second runner up was Belise Uwamahoro, a second year student.

Nadine Kabatesi was Miss Photogénique as Dr. Higiro Jean Pierre and judges told igihe.com. Among all contestants, she was better than others. Nadine is a first year student studying History and wore print number 6.

Miss UNATEK said she will try her best and support women: “In a motivation, an advocacy plan to all women especially in rural areas, INATEK and Nyamasheke as her home District”. She said she will try her best to develop them.

Bernard Banamwana, vice Rector of INATEK said that, the institute will continue supporting such events.

He said, INATEK facilitates students and the surrounding environment to endorse sports and culture. “We saw beautiful girls and how they model in front of the public, and assure you that each year INATEK will be having a beauty queen” he added.

François Niyotwagira, the Mayor of Ngoma District, urged the nominated beauty pageants to promote Rwandan culture and promised that, the District is also going to organize such events.

As event organizer Mr. Gitori pacific in charge of sports and culture hailed the university management for the support they expressed but also urged parents to sensitize their daughters not to be afraid since being an ambassador of the university is an act of a great value to society.

Odette Uwingabire was born on 17th January 1989. The event was last held in 2009 when Louis mukazana was crowned.

{{Cross-border traders have a big role to play in the growth of the economy, yet there’re less efforts to help them tackle enormous challenges they face while trading acrossborders with neighbouring countries.}}

In this regard cooperative associations are meeting in Kigali for a 3day workshop during which they will learn how to improve their performance and jointly devise means addressing some of their challenges.

Their president Migisha Nyangezi who’s also the chairman of Nyagatare district said that the talks will focus more on how to fight injustice from their neighboring traders who often hike prices to Rwandan traders.

This would be solved by strengthening the Simplified trade regime which will avoid corrupt activities towards cross-border traders.

“Our cooperative deals with grains which we buy from neighboring Ugandan traders but what’s annoying is when they hike price yet we have to cater for the transport cost and other taxes,” he argued.

Another way of fighting the injustice he said is by building capacity to cooperative members and so far COMESA has started offering lessons on management, marketing obstacles.

Leornard Kabagambe the COMESA’s coordinator of small cross-border associations in Rwanda insisted that traders are particularly taught on their rights through raising their awareness on some of the regional trade policies.

“According to EAC market protocol, regional traders selling local products shouldn’t pay tax as long as they have a certificate of origin confirming their products are not foreign”, said Kabagambe.

Indeed, understanding regional trade policies is essential but what happened to harmonization of some trade laws? Wonders Jeane Bayera, a representative of Gatuna small cross-border traders, her worry is mostly on the US$ 76 charged on every foreign car that enters the country yet in other regional countries there’re not charged the amount.

By press time the minister of trade and industry Francois Kanimba couldn’t comment on the matter saying he was busy chairing a meeting. An official in charge of trade issues at the Ministry of East Africa Community said he was not aware of the issue.

However, Augustine Mugabo, the chairman of Rubavu cross-border traders said besides the cross border taxes, there other priority challenges and insisted that financial institutions should ease lending to small traders even though they lack bigger collaterals their businesses are promising.

And since access to lending is hindrance to progress of the cooperatives, some members have started moving out of the associations.

“We started with 100 people then after sometime some left the team we’re now 80, those who left showed weaknesses in the contributions, normally the entry fee is Frw 100,000 while monthly contributions is Frw 20,000, we’re very strict on the contribution in order to raise our working capital hence we need more people,” he remarked.

He further highlighted that with enough capital, they would sell more than they buy from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hence for a start they have plans to have a bigger warehouse which they hope would positively have an impact in their business.

“We’ve always wished to have our own warehouse to store our goods since it would help us to buy goods at lower prices and sell them when there’s demand on the market.”

{{Moto taxi operators are decrying the ongoing Traffic Police operation of impounding Motorcycles saying it’s now a routine harassment and that the issue should be quickly addressed.}}

Among the complainants, one Nsengiyumva operating in Kimironko told {igihe.com} that: “Recently a police lorry came to the place where we park our motorcycles during lunch time and loaded all bikes that were parked there without any explainations.

“Corps nowadays don’t ask for anything like requirements but just take the motorbikes.They should tell us if they don’t want us to operate in town then we go to village and work from there,” He lamented.

“These days we operate via shortcuts because whether we have requirements or not when police finds you then know that your Motorbike shall be taken,” Said Jean Claude Habimana an operater at Nyarutarama.

Daniel Ngarambe, the president of Taxi-Moto Operators Association (ATAMIMORWA) in the zone of Remera said that the main point of confiscating them has resulted from the reallocations of parking yards.

“There is communication breakdown on the new parking yard allocations and most of motor taxi men are not aware,” said Ngarambe.

He however explained that Starting from today evening the association will move to the field as leaders and help motor taxi operators on the new parking yard allocations.

According to Chief Supt Célestin Twahirwa, the head Traffic Police, the operation is to reduce road accidents that have been a result of Motor taxis and that most of them do not have all the requirements.

He added that others being confiscated are those that are not under the umbrella of Taxi-Motor taxi associations.

{{Boeing 737 means a common airliner found around the world. For many airlines, it is a reliable revenue-making machine.}}

However, for others it is more than just the sum of its parts. For RwandAir and the country, it represents progress and national pride that no one can put a price tag to.

An airlines reporter, David Parker Brown has described the importance of the new national Boeing 737-800 with Sky Interior as the tool to drive the country’s economic growth due to the fact that Rwanda is landlocked.

Brown says,“Rwanda is a country with a troubled past, but they have come so far in a very short period. It is a landlocked country, looking to grow. To successfully do so, they need a viable air transportation infrastructure,” Brown underscores.

CEO of RwandAir, John Mirenge also stated during the dinner at the launch that he knows what aviation can do to change lives and nations, and hopes to continue to build RwandAir with additional aircrafts including the Boeing 787 Dream liner.

He vowed to go back to Seattle for more aircrafts,“We will be regular visitors in this town. It is a dream come true.”

RwandAir was established on 1 December 2002 as a joint venture between the government of Rwanda (77%) and Silverback Cargo Freighters (23%), under the name RwandAir Express and started operations on 27 April 2003.

It was rebranded from RwandAir Express in June 2009 and the new RwandAir added the tag line: “fly our dreams to the heart of Africa.”

The Airline hopes to reach 12 aircraft in the next five years and to 18 aircraft by 2020.

RwandAir is compliant with International regulations. It is a registered IATA member, and has passed the IATA Operational Quality Standards (OQS) audit.

It has interline agreements with various international carriers, who can issue RwandAir flights on their tickets.

{{A delegation of eight members led by the Minister of Education (MINEDUC), Habumuremyi Pierre Damien this Friday visited the Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where they spoke of the country’s continuing need to rebuild its higher education system in the wake of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi.}}

Habumuremyi pointed out that Hendrix College will perform a crucial role to uplift the future higher education of the Rwandans.

The program now includes 129 Rwandan students enrolled at 18 institutions across eight states in USA.

The Minister noted, “The quality of education you deliver to these students is very important to our country. We are here to cement our relationship and explore new areas of cooperation,” he said.

Habumuremyi also met with the Rwandan graduates this summer.

Among the delegates Prof. Silas Lwakabamba, Rector of the National University of Rwanda (NUR) noted, “We need to think strategically about how to build our capacities in higher education.”

Lwakabamba said that he hopes the delegation will continue to explore new ideas, including distance learning, remote library access, and faculty and administrative exchange programs.

President J. Timothy Cloyd of the Hendrix College noted, “We are very proud of our relationship and the partnership we have developed with the Republic of Rwanda. Not only does this support Rwanda’s vision for its future, it also benefits us”.

“Our students and faculty members grow because of their interactions with the Rwandan students and the friendships they forge with the Rwandan students,” Cloyd added.
Dr. Robert L. Entzminger, a Provost and Dean of the College, said the students’ success at Hendrix was a tribute to their talent and the way in which faculty members embraced the program and committed to its success.

Following a welcome ceremony on campus, the delegation toured the campus and observed the science teaching and research facilities. They also met with faculty and staff representatives.

Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. Hendrix is featured in the 2011 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country’s best 376 colleges and is listed in the 2012 edition of the Fiske Guide to College as one of 25 “Best Buy” private colleges included.

The campus has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884.

In 2007, Hendrix led the creation of the Rwanda Presidential Scholars Program, a partnership with the Rwandan government to enroll Rwandan students at colleges and universities in the United States.

The program is administered by Hendrix in partnership with the William J. Clinton Foundation.

The Hendrix led higher education consortium was the brainchild of David Knight, the chairman of the Hendrix College Board of Trustees.

Knight, the Chief Legal Counsel at Stephens Inc., worked with President J. Timothy Cloyd to begin Hendrix’s relationship, and both men have been instrumental in recruiting new colleges to the consortium during the past four years.

The first four Rwanda Presidential Scholars graduated from Hendrix in May 2011.

{Source: Hendrix College website}

{{IGIHE.com CEO Meilleur Murindabigwi has been shortlisted among the top 10 innovators in the world by JCI international.}}

He and his nine other nominees are expected to receive their awards at JCI’s general assembly at Brussels in Belgium on 2 November.

Reacting to the news, Murindabigwi, “I’m overly happy because we’ve worked hard to perform and deliver better news and I’m happy that our work is recognized.”

He further added,” I never thought that I’ll be given such a ranking. This is an identification that the good things we do are recognised internationally. I also appreciate my colleagues that assisted me to achieve my dream. Such nominations should encourage us to deliver even better services,” he remarked.

Normally, JCI annually awards young innovators that have made major progress in various developmental sectors like health, entrepreneurship, politics, law, culture etc.

Selected people are also identified as Ten Outstanding Young People in the World (TOYP) meaning they have unique ideas and activities.

The IGIHE.com CEO becomes the second TOYP Rwandan after Dr. Joseph Nkurunziza who was acknowledged with fighting for the rights of children under the category of (Contribution to children, world peace and/or human rights) 2010.

On his part Murindabigwi has been acknowledged on his news website which he formed in 2009 together with his friends. It is believed that he formed the website after realizing that there was some online information that misrepresented Rwanda’s progress.

Hence, he came up with a IGIHE.com which strived to report the reality about what was happening in the country especially in areas of economy, politics, entertainment sport among others.

JCI judges who represent exemplary institutions like the UN, showed their appreciation to Murindabigwi’s effort to change the history of how media was used negatively to incite killings in the 1994 genocide.