Category: Business

An Algerian private food industry group CEVITAL Group has a signed an investment deals with Rwanda worth US$250m in agro-processing.

CEVITAL Group has had US$3.5b of turnover in 2010.

According to a press release from Rwanda Development Board(RDB), the Government represented by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and the National Agriculture Export Board (NAEB) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CEVITAL Group.

The group’s Board of Directors Chairman Issad Rebrab, said the immediate interest is to add value to Rwanda’s tea but also to set up a sugar production plant with the capacity of at least 200.00MT per year.

In addition, CEVITAL Group is not only interested in partnering with local companies such as Inyange Industries but is also considering investing in grains and cereals processing.

The main objective of the MoU is to document preliminary understanding of the parties’ roles and responsibilities with respect to the Project’s implementation.

While RDB promised to continuously support the company during its operations, the National Agriculture and Export Board through its Director General Alex Kanyankore also committed to assist CEVITAL Group in its operations which will be related to agriculture exports.

RDB CEO John Gara in his statement said that “Agriculture is still playing a significant role in Rwanda’s economy with 35% of GDP and 60% of commodity export revenues; therefore the Government of Rwanda still places urgent and strategic importance to this sector, particularly on value addition, to enable the country’s rapid economic growth. Therefore, this investment is a welcome addition.”

CEVITAL Group is expected to commence operations in Rwanda before the end of this year.

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The Nigerian tycoon Tony Elumelu has encouraged the graduated students at School of Finance and Banking(SFB) to vigorously chase their goals if they have to make a change in their societies.

In a humble testimony of his success, Elumelu the founder and the owner of the Elumelu Foundation in Nigeria asked the students to give a deaf ear to setbacks they will meet in their pursue to success.

Elumelu Foundation is a Nigerian based which focuses greatly on the entrepreneurship development especially, in Africa.

“I am from Africa, and you are hearing from a person who had his background in Africa, Nigeria. I was born in Nigeria and had my education, started my career in a country with civil war background but I never allowed setbacks to divert me towards my goal,” Elumelu said.

Elumelu who gave a key note speech at the SFB graduation ceremony said that with targeting western world, in a midst of poor leveraged financial sector that had just came out from civil war, him and his colleagues begun to see how save their country’s financial sector.

“I and my colleagues we begun to discuss on how to add value on Nigeria’s banking systems but it did not just happen or fall from the sky but we worked hard to achieve our goals,” Elumelu added.

He told students that actually they are better placed as compared to how they were at that time when Nigeria had come out from the civil war adding that they have better resources to day.

“People will say we leave in a different world today but the truth is that more challenges will continue to come but you ought to focus on your goal other than setbacks,” he added.

He said that in whatever one defines success, he or she must go for it because he sees that there are more opportunities today.

Previously Dr.Weibe Boer, the Chief Executive Officer of Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) was in the country to study market environment in its attempt to invest in Agriculture and ICT and areas of entrepreneur development.

Boer held several meetings with business groups in Rwanda and SFB management in the relation to entrepreneurship development.

Boer announced that they intend to work with the School of Finance and Banking (SFB) as part of their program to create a pipeline of entrepreneurs while supporting imaginative business leaders whose ideas can create sustainable employment and foster regional partnerships.

The foundation identifies and grooms business students, young entrepreneurs and CEOs of African corporations at various stages of their development.

During his visit, Boer held meetings with different groups of the Rwandan business community including the Private Sector Federation on the opportunities available, young entrepreneurs, Rector of School of Finance and Banking and officials from Strategic Policy Unit in the president’s office.

Tony Elumelu, who made a meteoric rise as a banking executive before retiring last year, knows what he’d like to accomplish with his new initiatives.

The 48-year-old Nigerian is the Chairman of Heirs Holdings Limited, an African investment company committed to economic transformation in Africa through long-term investments that generate economic prosperity and social wealth.

Elumelu is also Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded philanthropy, whose mission is to identify and groom African business leaders and entrepreneurs to achieve the Foundation’s central objective of enhancing the competitiveness and growth of Africa’s private sector.

His reputation as a prominent African business leader is founded on his vision and strategy for United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), a single country bank he transformed into a Pan-African financial services institution serving over 7 million customers in 20 African countries and operating in Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

He retired as Group Chief Executive Officer of UBA in August 2010.
This year, New African magazine named him one of the Top 100 Most Influential Africans in the area of business and finance.

More recently, he was appointed as Chairman of Transnational Corporation (Transcorp), a diversified conglomerate with strategic investments and core interests in the hospitality, agribusiness and oil and gas sectors.

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Atsoko.com an online Stockholm that manages the website, logistics and sourcing is already on market to develop an online shopping website and service in Rwanda.

Atsoko is a website that offers people living in Rwanda an online personal shopping service, making it possible for them to buy things from web stores in Europe, without a credit card.

Atsoko CEO, Marie Englesson told igihe.com that, “In October we launched our Atsoko web shop, with our own catalogue of items. Here we post products that our clients have bought through our personal shopping service, or items that we recommend. This helps our clients to get an idea of what you can buy online.”

Englesson further revealed that they have just reached an agreement with a local supermarket that will take care of payments and deliveries for Atsoko’s clients, starting January 2012.

“We have realized that our clients want a physical shop where they can make payments and pick up their deliveries for things they order online,” she pointed out. The company she said is seeing several synergies with partnering with a local supermarket.

According to her, shopping online is addictive most of the time. “People are hesitant, but we now have a steady group of returning clients. Shopping online may seem complicated the first time, but once you understand how it works, it is addictive.”

Atsoko is a group of companies with Atsoko International AB as the mother company.

Atsoko International AB is founded and based in Sweden, and it is in Stockholm we manage the website, logistics and sourcing.

Our sales offices Atsoko Tanzania Ltd and Atsoko Rwanda Ltd are registered in Dar es Salaam and in Kigali respectively.

Visa Inc. and the Government of Rwanda announced a wide-reaching Charter of Collaboration to develop localized solutions to extend access to financial services to local and international consumers throughout the country.

The partnership was announced today at a joint press conference attended by the Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, Ambassador Claver Gatete and Elizabeth Buse, Group President, Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa, Visa Inc.

According to the press statement, the partnership is a step in the Government of Rwanda’s Vision 2020 plan, the country’s blueprint to become a middle-income nation within the coming decade, with per capita income of $1000 by 2020, up from $220 in 2000.

At the event, Ambassador Gatete said: “In all economies, well developed financial systems are essential for sustained economic growth. The partnership between the Government of Rwanda and Visa is an opportunity to increase efficiency and inclusion through the use of electronic financial services.”

Amb. Gatete also announced, “This partnership is aligned with the National Bank of Rwanda’s strategy to reduce the widespread usage of cash and increase liquidity within the banking system, which ultimately reduces interest rates and improves price stability.”

Buse described Visa’s role in the partnership, “We are deploying our unique expertise and assets bringing the benefits of electronic payments and banking to emerging markets like Rwanda.”

“By working with governments and stakeholders around the world to better understand the challenges of the underserved, we can adapt our approach to ensure that we are not only sharing our payments expertise, but also delivering meaningful local programs that meet the needs of governments and their citizens. In the long-run we believe this will also open up new growth opportunities for Visa.”

Noting the importance of government partnerships to Visa’s global strategy, Joseph W. Saunders, Chairman and CEO of Visa Inc., at the event said: “Visa believes that everyone has the right to have access to basic financial and payment services, and we are very pleased to be able to work with a government as committed to this vision as the Rwandan government.

Partnerships such as this are the key to delivering the promise of economic growth and financial inclusion that we know electronic payment systems can provide.”

The success of that plan relies on a number of pillars, including shifting to a knowledge-based economy, private sector development and improving infrastructure.

The statement also reveals, “Creating public-private partnerships is also a key component of Visa’s global growth strategy. The company’s aim to generate 50 percent of its revenue from markets outside of the United States by 2015 will partly be enabled through its ability to build, buy and deploy new technologies that extend its products to geographies where electronic payments are limited today, such as Rwanda.”

The Charter of Collaboration encompasses 12 initiatives structured around three key areas identified by the Government of Rwanda and Visa as vital to the development of a fully-inclusive financial system; Lay the Foundations for Electronic Payments, Enable Rwanda to take advantage of modern technologies to reach Rwandans who are under-served by traditional payments infrastructure, and capacity building.

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency.

Current information has indicated that President Paul Kagame’s participation in the Aid effectiveness forum in S.Korea may also benefit Rwanda to partner with by the summit hosting country in Internet security.

This followed President Kagame’s visit to the Global electronic company SamSung and Korea Internet security Agency (KISA).

According to Paulkagame.com, Partick Nyirishema, Head of Rwanda Development Board Information Technology department, president’s visit to these technological giants was very instrumental for Rwanda an aspiring ICT hub in the region.

Nyirishema believes a country cannot invest in the use of the internet if security in ICT cannot be secured which would lead to loss of trust and credibility.

“KISA is indeed a strategic partner, and they are going to be helping us to build cyber security capability so that as we strive to fast track out technological capabilities in ICT, we do that with security in mind and putting the right measure in place,”Nyirishema said.

“We are going to be partnering with them to put the right measures in place and build our own capacity for cyber security.”He added.

He also said that bSamSung electronic giant will partner with Rwanda in skills development in ICT excellence.

“To have Samsung as a partner would be strategic because they have very high levels of expertise and competence. We are looking at partnering in the area of skills development, to help us build skills in certain areas we have discussed,”Nyirishema noted.

“We will continue to discuss the details on how they will help us as a country, to build skills in electronics as well as software application development. There are some tangible things that they are going to help us which will be very instrumental for ICT development in Rwanda.”

KISA is a government agency established in 2009 to focus on the national Korean information security, national internet development and international cooperation in the area of ICT and broadcasting.

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A Turkish firm, Hakan Mining and Electricity Generation Industry and Trade Inc. has signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with Ministry of Infranstracture to develop power generating plants in the wetlands of Nyanza and Gisagara Districts in the Southern Province.

According to Emma Francoise Isumbingabo the Minister of State in Charge of energy and Water, the project is expected to be completed in three years and US$230 million (Est. Rwf136,8bn) to develop the peat power generation plants.

Isumbingabo signed the MoU on behalf of the government.

This comes in a wake of unclear circumstances of Rukarara Hydro power project which is said to have involved slapdash deals and work in the execution of the project.

Currently an independent ad-hoc committee from the parliament has been set to investigate thoroughly well what failed the project.

After one month, the ad hoc committee is expected to come up with the expected independent report which will be followed by summoning relevant ministries or will ask for more time if it will have not completed its investigations.

A number of government institutions are now under scrutiny by Parliamentary Public Accountants Committee (PAC) for possible abuse of public funds following auditor general’s report 2009/10 which highlighted billions of funds spent with no supporting documents.

The report listed a number of public institutes that would have been caused a huge loss to the government in various aspects.

The Turkish firm represented by its Board of Director’s Chairman of Hakan, Ahmet Karasoy hailed Rwanda Development Board(RDB) that helped it eased and quickened its paper work.

“We shall also be looking at other energy areas where we can invest in,” Karasoy said.

Energy has become one of the world’s priorities of investment with latest technologies inventing various sources of energy from Sun, human and animal waste, and wind among others.

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The Ministry of local government (MINALOC) caused a loss to the government worth Rwf 64.6m, it has emerged.

It was disclosed during the on-going inquiries by parliamentary Public Accountants Commission (PAC) into different government institutions and ministries implicated in the 2009/10 auditor general’s report for mismanagement of public funds.

According to 2009/10 auditor general’s report Rwf9.7 billion ($16.3 million) could not be accounted for.

The report cites lack of support documents, embezzlement or mismanagement of public funds in many of the government entities.

About 36 public entities incurred wasteful expenditure amounting to Rwf 1,054,529,243 (2009: Rwf 610,396,260 in 27 institutions) that could have been avoided had they complied with laws, regulations and procedures in force.

Wasteful expenditure was mainly incurred to pay penalties to Rwanda Revenue Authority for failure and/or delayed remittance of statutory deductions.

According to a press statement released by the lower chamber of parliament the loss of Rwf 64.6m was due to failure to demand for timely payment of loans, debts of motorcycles which were given to executive committees in different districts not recorded in the books of accounts by June 30, 2010.

Others included debts in cheques that were not banked and not recorded in books of accounts by June 30, 2010 and funds for Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme(VUP) which were paid to individuals instead of collective funding.

The quizzed team from MINALOC led by Cyrille Turatsinze the Permanent Secretary accepted having poorly recorded and mismanaged state finances and vowed to revise their management of funds.
It was also disclosed that a deal to supply 1000 laptops to the Ministry of Local Government turned into a counterfeit computers supply.

The laptops worth Rwf493.6m of which an advance payment of Rwf 98.7m was made, were meant for local leaders at cell level, aimed at facilitating them to have proper service delivery.

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Following Sunday’s Rwanda TV and Radio’s live talk where a member of public called in complaining of lack of information about tax issues, the tax agency has refuted the claims saying members of public pretend.

In an interview with Nkusi Mukubu Gerald the Director of Tax Payers Services Department at Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) said that his institution had a lot to ensure public awareness on tax related issues.

“It is so unfortunate if they are complaining, however we have done much to make the whole country covered with tax education, of course I can’t say it is 100% but at least 98% which wouldn’t result into such complaints,” Mukubu said by cell phone.

Mukubu said that RRA has been carrying out several tax education in the country citing different events in up country including one that was carried out in Burera District in Northern Province.

“Taxation issues are complex, you can’t know all of it but some of the tax payers do exaggerate and fail to see what government is doing for them and so some pretend they have not received any tax education, just yesterday I received a call from Burera District the same area we carried out a workshop and had a celebration of tax payers day recognizing the best tax payers,” Mukubu added.

He however revealed that some of them have fear of arrears of taxes not paid in the past three years and end up creating pretext that they have no information about taxes.

Mukubu called upon the public to suggest the best channel and way RRA can help them to be tax educated.

“We have a hotline 3004 which one call and get answered by an expert who answers almost every query, we have a system that they can use to pay taxes or ask anything about taxes but they can propose to us which way we can use, we can adjust, we are flexible,” he added.

Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) has set a target of collecting at least Rwf 533.8 billion in tax revenues during the current 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Recently, the Commissioner General of RRA, Ben Kagarama, during the last fiscal year, the tax body had set a target of Rwf 458 billion, which they surpassed by collecting Rwf 491 billion.

Among the challenges Kagarama cited were mainly tax evasion, giving an example of taxpayers registered for Valued Added Tax (VAT) but who fail to issue VAT invoices.

The RRA chief further noted that some traders use forged documents by under-declaring their taxes through a reduction in turnover.

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In partnership with International Finance Corporation (IFC Rwanda), the Centre for Business Solutions (CBS) is training Kigali entrepreneurs in marketing skills for their work and sales.

Patrick Kagabo, the CBS manager told igihe.com that this training aims at enhancing entrepreneurs’ skills in dealing with their businesses.

“We help them at enhancing their skills in doing their marketing system. It is good that people start understanding the role of these trainings that could change their way of working”, said Kagabo.

He added that this helps increase their practical skills because most of them are used to theoretical skills got from schools.

One of the trainers Jimmy Rutabingwa says that trainings opened their eyes as business people and this will help to make their businesses known.

“These trainings will help us to get their eyes open as entrepreneurs.All of them will put this into practice and let me mention that time is now”, said Rutabingwa.

One of the trainees, Christian Mutembe told igihe.com that he welcomed the initiative by the Centre for Business Solutions.

“On my behalf, this training was successful. We got to know how to make things into practices. I get out of here with much knowledge and skills to improve my business”, stated Mutembe.

SUZAN RICE TAKES A TOUR OF THE RWANDA DEVELOPMENT BOARD’S ONE STOP CENTRE

The United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Susan E. Rice met with Senior Officials at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and some private sector investors in the ICT and Hospitality sectors to discuss and observe first-hand the current business environment in Rwanda.

At RDB, Ambassador Rice was taken around the investor One Stop Centre and various services including company registration, sector specific certifications and licenses, environment clearance and issuance of investment certificates, were explained.

During the visit, it was explained that the Rwanda Development Board is not only a One Stop Shop for investors but a single point of contact for guidance on laws, policies, incentives, investment climate and trends, investment opportunities, costs of setting up a business, process of finding land and sector specific information.

In addition, the One Center provides work permits and visas, tax exemptions and payment, construction permits, utilities and notary services.

The Ambassador also heard from the private sector members about their experiences in doing business in Rwanda, their plans for the future and what is on their wish list.

Ambassador Rice is in Rwanda on an official visit to various organizations and meets with Ministers and other dignitaries to witness Rwanda’s progress over the past several years, particularly in health, agriculture and in the economic sphere.

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