During the signing of performance contracts for 2017/2018fiscal year between MININFRA and implementing agencies yesterday, the ministry committed to investing more resources to ensure that the set targets are met.
Speaking at the ceremony, the State Minister in-charge of Energy and Water in MININFRA, Germaine Kamayirese said that available energy sources are enough to connect the targeted households but more projects are ongoing to boost power generation.
“Available energy sources are enough to achieve this target, there is no doubt that all targeted households will be connected” she said
Currently, there are 26 investors across the country distributing electricity. The signed performance contracts are in line with vision 2020 of the country, EDPRS II and seven-year government programme.
Katumwine was speaking at Bridge2Rwanda luncheon at University of Rwanda’s College of Business and Economics in Kigali on Friday. She recounted her return to Rwanda to get involved in the work being done here.
She said BBOXX also started with a desire to impact the community when its “Three founders who were engineering students from England visited Musanze during their internship while at University and felt compelled to get involved in solving the energy problem not only in Musanze but worldwide. They decided to come up with solar energy solution and that is how BBOXX came of age.”
She urged the 37 including 28 Rwandans and nine from three regional countries to think of what they can do for their communities and consider coming back once they are done with their studies.
“Take advantage of every opportunity you get and be willing to change! That is the main message I want to give you, young people,” she said.
Adhel Geng, one of the students from South Sudan, found Katumwine’s message very inspirational among other lessons she has acquired in the last eight months which made her choose public health as her future career to bring impact in her community, country and the continent.
Rwandan Deogratius Mukuralinda said he has learned that being successful is more of finding solution to problems in the society than accumulating money, saying that he wants to pursue engineering career.
Happiness Uwase, Senior Career Development Advisor at Bridge2Rwanda, said the luncheon was part of their programmes of inviting guests speakers to share about their career journeys and why they chose to work on the continent.
“We invited Monica Keza to share about what made her return to serve in Rwanda. As she said it is for making impact in the community and that is what we teach our students. We also added BBOXX on the list of companies from which we need speakers because it is voicing out what we are teaching our students and has been mentoring our students through internships,” said Uwase.
She said Brigde2Rwanda is hopeful to get scholarships for all the 37 under the programme as it was able to do so 100% for the previous four intakes but strongly focusing on making them return after their studies to make an impact in their respective countries.
BBOXX has provided energy access through solar home systems to over 40,000 households all over the Country and targets to reach 58,000 by end of this year. BBOXX has 26 outlets across the Country and employs over 500 Rwandans to-date.
According to Kigali City Police Spokesperson, SP Emmanuel Hitayezu, Police was informed about Marie Rose Mukeshimana’s death yesterday and immediately arrested her husband.
“On Monday evening, her relatives informed Police that Mukeshimana was missing since Saturday and worried that she might be killed by her husband. We arrested the man and asked him his wife’s whereabouts. He confessed to have killed and buried her at their home and then planted vegetables on her grave,” Hitayezu explained.
Hitayezu said that today, Police went in their home and found the deceased’s body.
According to neighbors, the couple had had family conflicts which they think might be the root cause of the murder.
Mukeshimana 38 and her husband had been living in Amarembo II village, Nyabisindu cell of Remera sector in Gasabo District.
Organic Law N° 10/2013/0L of 11/07/2013 Governing Political Organizations and Politicians states that The Office of Ombudsman shall each year and whenever necessary verify the accounts of political organizations, on its initiative or upon request by the authority in charge of registration of political organizations.
The Ombudsman received financial records for eleven political parties which are RPF Inkotanyi, PDC, PDI, PL, PPC, PSD, PS Imberakuri, PSP, PSR, UDPR and DGPR, assessed their sources of funding as well as their expenditures.
The Ombudsman said that four political parties; PSR, PDI, PPC and PS Imberakuri had inaccurate information characterized by poor records
According to the report, PS Imberakuri financial declarations did not follow fiscal year calendar as their report covers 1st October 2015 to 30th September, 2016.
In PSR, the party did not account for Rwf360,000as PPC accounts show that the paid an extra Rwf480,000 in rent without explanations. and PDI do not follow financial reporting guidelines. Speaking to IGIHE, the chairperson for PS Imberakuri, Christine Mukabunani said that they were so far confused with laws.
“At first we had to report to the Office of the Ombudsman and submit a copy to the Rwanda Governance Board, but following the revision of the law in 2013, newchanges confused us” she explained.
She explains that they used to report in October and include activities performed in August and September.
“Now, they explained to us that we should declare activities performed between July and June. Errors are now corrected,” she added.
Public servants failed to declare wealth sources
Ombudsman’s report also revealed that six public servants failed to declare their source of wealth and some of them h had their cases taken to prosecution.
Presenting the report to both chambers of parliament yesterday, the Ombudsman, AnastaseMurekezi said that among 1,088 individuals that had to declare their wealth in 2016/2017, six did not.
The Office of Ombudsman requested that the government should seize ¼ of salary for people who fail to declare their sources of wealth.
Lack of shared rules and regulations, cross border trade tariffs and lack of infrastructure remain major barriers to economic growth in Africa. According to the World Bank, the African market remains highly fragmented, which limits the movement of goods, services and people across borders. The United National Economic Commission for Africa has also recently highlighted the need to boost intra-African trade to deliver development across the continent and speed up Africa’s economic transformation.
{{African payments, via international banks}}
While the transport of goods and services is critical for Africa’s development, enabling the movement of capitalto support trade and development within Africa is equallyimportant. According to SWIFT data, only 12.8% of commercial payments from Africa went directly to other African countries, even though the final destination of more than 20% of these payments was within the continent. A large proportion was settled internationally, including 37.2% in the United States. This international financial intermediation is costly, and takes time.
Pan-regional payment systems operating within harmonised legal and regulatory frameworks of regional economic areas will make intra-regional payments easier, faster and cheaper. This will help to increase cross-border trade within regional communities such as the East African Community (EAC) or the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). Competitive local payment services will alsohelp to reduce the need for international financial intermediation thereby keeping African transactions within Africa. It will also help to increase access to financial services. Looking beyond high value transactions, the addition of low value intra-regional payments could also extend benefits to consumersby enabling the creation of new products and services that could increase financial inclusion.
Policy makers have recognised the role that payment systems and other infrastructures play in fostering and deepening economic development; therefore, over the last 5 years, many African countries have invested in their financial market infrastructures (FMIs). The World Bank too has prioritised the development of payment systems as a crucial component of its work to reduce poverty and boost prosperity.
Several pan-regional payment systems already exist, including SIRESS in SADC,which went live with the first four SADC countries in 2013, and the East African Payment System (EAPS), which was established by the EAC also in 2013.
{{Focus on East Africa}}
The EAC, which includes Uganda, Kenya, the United Republic of Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, was established to strengthen economic, political, social and cultural integration in order to improve the quality of life of people in East Africa. TheEAC intends to realise thisby increasing competitiveness within the region, creating value-added products, and boosting trade and investment.
To help achieve these ambitions, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda implemented the multicurrency regional payment system, EAPS, which links the domestic payment systems in each country. This makes cross-border fund transfers much easier within the Community, supporting the free movement of goods, labour and services.
The EAPS platform, launched in November 2013, is underpinned by the high value payment systems at each country’s Central Bank (called real time gross settlement systems) which operate on the SWIFT messaging network for safe and secure delivery of payment and settlement messages. It enables banks to make or receive cross-border payments seamlessly in their respective local currencies. A key aim was to reduce the cost of financial transactions, which would in turn help to increase the trade flows that are critical for economic growth.
Over the last four years, the members of EAPS have reaped several benefits from using the platform.
The system supports all member currencies and simplifies the process of transferring funds cross-border by reducing commission and other charges. For example, previously when a Kenyan bank wanted to send funds to a bank in Tanzania, it would need to change Kenyan shillings into dollars via a foreign intermediary bank, and then into Tanzanian shillings on the other side. EAPS removes this step, allowing direct currency exchange, therefore lowering the cost of doing business across the region.
Transaction times havealso been significantlyreduced. While a payment used to take up to two days, it can now take place in only a few hours. By using SWIFT, EAPS also benefits from the highest levels of security, resiliency, standardisation and automation.
The ambition for EAPS is that it will be the platform of the future, enhancing efficiency, continuing to reduce settlement times and lower transaction costs, therebyencouraging greater levels of trade within the region and furthering economic growth.
Currently four countries are connected to EAPS, andBurundi is scheduled to join the platform later this year. The realisation of such a large regional economic bloc has great strategic and geopolitical significance. Encompassing some of the most vibrant economies in Africa with a combined population of more than 150 million people, a land area of 1.82 million square kilometres and a combined gross domestic product of $146bn, EAPS will play a key role in boosting the economies of the East Africa region.
{{The writer is the Head of Sub-Sahara Africa, SWIFT}}
This year’s activities will include CEO Round Table meetings, selection of best performing institutions (Microfinance Institutions/ MFIs and SACCOs), Media reporting tour, as well as journalist awards and involvement of sector partners mainly in the area of client protection and education. The involved partners are SEEP Network and Rwanda Governance Board (RGB).
The SEEP Network has been collaborating with AMIR since 2016 to lead the Responsible Finance through Local Leadership and Learning Programme in Rwanda, which aims at promoting client protection and education.
CEO Round table meetings will be taking place in all provinces in districts of Musanze, Karongi, Kigali; Nyanza, and Rwamagana on different dates.
Client protection will be one of the criteria used in selecting best performing MFI/ SACCO.
On the other hand, Media Reporting Tour is expected to be conducted across the country, where journalists will be collecting inspiring and success stories from MFIs managers and clients to educate society, especially on demand and service provision through sharing best practices with respect to client protection and education.
CEO roundtable meetings bring together all MFI/SACCO managers, partners, local authorities to discuss achievements, emerging issues in the sector, recommendations and way forward.
The school is located at EL SIREAF Locality, in Northern Darfur.
The humanitarian project by the Rwandan Peacekeepers comprises of construction of a fence (120mx90m), one block of two classrooms, two latrines, four rehabilitated classrooms and an administration office. The school has now, after the project, a capacity to accommodate over 400 students.
The project was sponsored by UNAMID and implemented by Rwanda Peacekeepers deployed in Sector North Darfur as part of the Mission’s Quick Impact Projects programme.
In his remarks, the Guest of Honor Mr ABDOMAJID Mohammed, representative from State Ministry of education, appreciated the great effort by Rwanda peacekeepers who constructed and rehabilitated the EL SIREAF High Secondary School for Girls.
“We ensure you that we will maintain this work for coming generation to be a symbol of peace and love between people of Sudan and Rwandans” he said.
The UNAMID Head of Office Sector North, Mrs SUNAINA Lowe, who presided over the inauguration and handover ceremony commended the courage and effort of Rwanda Peacekeepers and its significant contribution and sustained commitment to the UN Peacekeeping operations.
On behalf of the Rwanda Peacekeepers, CO of RWANBATT49, Lt Col David MUSIRIKARE, said that the project is very useful because the existing school was old.
He mentioned that it was a challenge for the school administration to manage the security of the school especially the movement of students and other people entering inside without control.
“This project will positively impact both the local community and UNAMID; it will also employ people settled in the area reducing the security threat to the school beneficiaries”, Lt Col David MUSIRIKARE said.
The handover ceremony was attended by delegations from the Government of Sudan, UNAMID officials, peacekeepers and local communities.
The museum was established in 2015, focusing on renewable and non-renewable energy.
In the first phase, the ministry relocated different animal mummies of crocodiles, snakes, birds, monkeys, butterflies, zebra and gorillas among other animals found in Rwandan parks.
Also relocated are minerals like aluminum, colta, wolfram among others found in Rwanda.
The museum consists of three components; the first for energy, the second for animals and mining and the third for plants like trees and herbs used for traditional healing
Speaking at the event last week, the Minister for Sports and Culture, Julienne Uwacu said that new objects will help boost visitors.
“Increasing objects will also help to increase visitors” she said adding that students will be able to visit the museum and see what they learn in theory.
She said that the more people visit the museum the more they will understand the importance of environmental conservation.
The Environmental Museum head, Andrew Ndabaga said that 20,000 people used to visit the museum per year and optimistic that the number will increase following new changes.
“People are attracted to different aspects; someone who will not understand energy affairs will visit animals section or minerals or gardens,” he said.
INMR will also relocate snakes currently located in Natural History Museum.
While presenting the report to Parliament today, the Ombudsman, Anastase Murekezi explained that 1,934 (64.9%) cases were not handled in 2015-2016 while 1,047 (35.1%) were received in 2016-2017.
Murekezi said that of the cases that were appealed, a total of 1,033 were assessed and 67, equivalent 6.5%, were revised through the Supreme Court.
A total of 966, making 93.5% cases, the report indicates, had no injustice cases identified.
The report says that there are many cases which were not assessed in 2016-2017 because of the overwhelming numbers in contrast to a small staff to scrutinize the files.
The defense team started by protesting that the Nyarugenge court should not be in charge of handling the hearing and trial, urging that the case should be taken to Kacyiru Primary Court.
The court however ruled that Nyarugenge Intermediate Court shall be able to handle the case.
When prosecution was asked to provide audio recorded evidence supporting allegations against the trio as entered on the charge sheet and file, they instead asked that one part of the hearing should be held in-camera to protect people who provided the testimonies.
Prosecution said that they have twenty audio recordings as evidence against the accused, eight of which, if aired in the open, could affect security of the people in question.
Prosecution also said that audio recordings have names mentioned, some of who are still under investigations and their revelation can obstruct further investigations and that they have testimonies from 70 witnesses but whose names, they said, they could not reveal for security purposes.
One of the defence lawyers, Gatera Gashabana said that he was worried of audio recordings which his clients were not asked about during investigations or before prosecution.
He said that audios were not legally taken and therefore to qualify before court, but the presiding judge said that qualification of the recordings is another case that could be handled on its own merit.
Gashabana welcomed the act of listening to all the audio recordings in-camera as the allegations are based on the said audios.
Defence lawyer Pierre Celestin Buhuru reminded that they were denied audios in different times for them to prepare defence, he said that nothing they can be supporting on their clients since they will have hear audios only in court.
He also insisted that all audios should go in-camera so that they will not be surprised during the hearing.
The presiding judge admitted that hearing for some audios can go in-camera but denied to mention names of testimony givers.
