Les Amis Sportifs’ Jean-Claude Uwizeye stormed to an emphatic victory with a 4:26 advantage at the Tour of Kigali on Sunday that covered a total distance of 124.9km to register his first domestic career win in style.
The 21-year old was among a group of six riders including Janvier Hadi (Benediction), Aime Mupenzi, Jean-Bosco Nsengimana (Benediction), Jeremie Karegeya (Cine Elmay) and Mathieu Twizerane(CCA) that broke away at the start of the race in Bugesera, at the border of Rwanda and Burundi.
Hadi and Nsengimana, who are fresh from the Tour of Rio that ended a week ago, took turns at the front but Uwizeye would hold on till the first circuit around Amahoro Stadium in Kigali to drop Nsengimana and take a minute lead before going all out to register a fine finish in the seventh event of the inaugural Rwanda Cycling Cup that also attracted riders from Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I am so thrilled with this win especially because it is the first time I am winning a race in my two-year cycling career. I decided to breakaway because I was feeling good and have been training well,” said the visibly excited Uwizeye.
This is the third win for the Rwamagana-based side that also saw Joseph Aleluya bag the Kivu race from Muhanga to Rubavu in April, which was the first event of the Rwanda Cycling Cup.
Last year’s Tour du Rwanda winner Valens Ndayisenga won the men’s individual time trial at the National Championships in June.
Les Amis Sportifs coach John Rugamba was pleased with his side’s performance with Aleluya coming sixth after posting 3:26:34.
“There was nothing surprising about Uwizeye’s performance because he has gained race experience and is determined to win. He is a young rider whose future is looks very bright,” said Rugamba.
The Rwanda Cycling Cup is comprised of 10 events and is sponsored by Cogebanque and Skol.
{{Rwanda Cycling Cup event winners}}
1. Kivu Race – Joseph Aleluya (Les Amis Sportifs)
2. Race to Remember – Janvier Hadi (Benediction)
3. National Championships – Road Race Joseph Biziyaremye (Cine Elmay), individual time trial Valens Ndayisenga (Les Amis Sportifs)
4. Race for Culture – Janvier Hadi (Benediction)
5. Northern Circuit – Jean-Bosco Nsengimana (Benediction)
6. Western Circuit – Patrick Byukusenge (Benediction)
7. Tour of Kigali – Jean-Claude Uwizeye (Les Amis Sportifs)
Unexpected technical hitches are standing between the nation and 25 megawatts of energy production expected to be generated from the first phase of the KivuWatt Methane Project in the Western Province district of Karongi, The New Times has learned.
The wait has been long. The first deadline was sometime in 2012. The most recent was July, but it was missed. Now a new one has been set for October.
ContourGlobal, an American energy investment firm, has a 25-year concession to produce 100 megawatts from the methane-rich waters of Lake Kivu.
Works on the first phase started in late 2008 but seven years later, the plant is yet to produce any electricity.
This newspaper’s request for access to the project was granted last Friday as it sought to substantiate reports that a critical part of the project’s machinery had been severely damaged during installation, hence the missed July deadline.
Inside KivuWatt
From a distance, the KivuWatt project is like a floating island in the middle of Lake Kivu; its machinery, which is a complicated assemblage of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of heavy pipes and metal, are installed on a wide barge.
The barge is anchored in one place by long strong ropes that are fastened in concrete slabs built at the bottom of the lake; according to the engineers, this is a permanent fixture.
Assessing the project progress from the outside, one could understand the frustrations of the government, which has played the role of patient customer waiting for a long placed order; a government that’s also under pressure from investors to address the daunting energy problem.
But once inside the project site, one gets to appreciate the reasons for the several missed deadlines in the past.
Jarmo Gummerus, ContourGlobal’s country director, says KivuWatt is a ‘lake breaking’ project,’ one that was always going to be a learning process.
Lake Kivu is the world’s only water body with methane gas and KivuWatt is the first project of its kind where methane gas will be extracted for electricity purposes. It’s one of ContourGlobal’s special Greenfield investments around the world.
“It’s lake-breaking because there are no templates for whatever we are doing here, there’s no luxury to copy and paste; everything here is being done for the first time, it’s an experiment where we have been learning and unlearning,” said Gummerus.
Gummerus, an engineer with several decades of experience, is as old in Rwanda as the project he’s managing.
At least two sub-contractors have been hired and fired, including the Kenya-based Civicon, about 3.5 million man-hours have been sunk into the project running on a multi-million dollar budget bankrolled by ContourGlobal investors.
Three million man-hours over a seven year period and the project hasn’t registered any fatal accidents, only five minor incidents were recorded under the watch of the two sub-contractors.
“Safety is a top priority here,” said the project’s head of safety.
Nicolas Suazo Farina is the project engineer for KivuWatt. He has been with the project for four years now and he told me that at the peak of the project sometime last year, there were over 500 personnel on site from 27 different countries.
In that mix were dozens of Rwandans including 27-year-old Cyprian Bigirimana, a graduate of Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC-Kigali), who, more than the money he has earned, acknowledges the project for giving him priceless experience and expertise.
Only about 150 workers remain on site given its near completion.
{{Last-minute glitches
}}
Both Gummerus and Farina said as far as they know, the project is 99.8 per cent complete and the only thing holding them back are a few unanticipated technical malfunctions that saw them lose an entire month and missing the deadline.
At this point of the concession, ContourGlobal is incurring all related costs to the project; the government is only waiting to start buying power from the investor at a cost thought to be around fifteen cents of the dollar.
“Everything is ready, from the production facility to the power plant, all we are waiting for is to sink the separators and extract the gas,” Gummerus said.
{{How it will be done
}}
In practice, KivuWatt will deliver 25 megawatts of electricity from methane gas but to do that, there are two pairs of separators, long and wide metallic pipe drums weighing 4000 tonnes. These are supposed to be installed some 18 meters underneath the lake.
The separators are important because they separate the methane gas from water before sending it (water) back into the lake, this happens in a continuous cycle.
Simply put, water enters these separators; a mechanical process then ensues in which the gas is extracted and sent up to the production system through pipes.
The water is then pushed back to the lake through an exit-valve on one of the separators. Early July, the first pair of these separators was sunk into the lake to begin the gas extraction process.
However, something wasn’t right with their positioning under the lake making them to malfunction; it was decided that they needed to be retrieved to the lake surface, checked, fixed and re-installed.
The process required professional divers. It also required the presence of the engineers who designed the separators, plus it required the purchase of certain machinery that had to be looked for, imported and flown into the country.
“Everything considered, we have lost about a month,” Gummerus said.
The project has hired six divers from South Africa. They also flew in one of the separators’ designers from Germany. Both expert-teams have been at work, the divers retrieved the separators and the engineer reworked the designs.
As of Friday, last week, they had finished their work and the pair of separators was ready to be reinstalled into the lake when another complication emerged.
The exit-valve on one of the separators had somehow jammed, it wasn’t opening; it means after separating the gas, the water couldn’t be released back into the lake…since the valve was closed.
Engineers spent all Friday trouble-shooting to figure out what was wrong with the valve. Once they fix that, the first pair of the separators will be re-installed into the lake followed by the other pair.
Germany’s coalition government has agreed to spend 6bn euros (£4.4m) to support record numbers of migrants and other measures to deal with the influx.
Critics at home have accused Chancellor Angela Merkel of creating a dangerous precedent by opening Germany’s borders.
About 18,000 migrants arrived over the weekend after an agreement with Austria and Hungary to relax asylum rules.
But Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann has said the emergency measures must come to an end.
He said they would move step by step “towards normality”, after speaking to Chancellor Merkel and the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Sunday.
Hungary had previously blocked migrants travelling to Western Europe, but dropped restrictions on Friday and shuttled people to the Austrian border.
At Hungary’s border with Serbia construction work continues on the border fence, as people continue to stream across the border, unchallenged by police, the BBC’s James Shaw reports.
Meanwhile migrants are continuing to arrive at Munich station.
Germany’s announcement of extra funds came after talks on Sunday night between the two parties which make up Chancellor Merkel’s coalition.
The government has agreed to give €3bn ($3.3bn; £2.2bn) to the federal states and local councils, with a further €3bn to fund federal programmes such as benefit payments.
Specific measures announced include:
A building programme to increase the number of places in reception centres for asylum seekers, suitable for winter months, to 150,000
An extra 3,000 federal police officers
Replacing cash allowances paid to asylum seekers in reception centres with benefits in kind
More money for integration and language courses
Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro will be added to the list of “safe” countries, meaning asylum seekers from those nations can deported more rapidly
The agreement stressed the need for “solidarity” and “a fair distribution” of refugees between EU states.
Germany expects to receive 800,000 refugees and migrants this year, and wants to see the rest of Europe do more to help.
But while Mrs Merkel has become a hero to many migrants and their supporters, conservative allies said she sent a “totally wrong signal” by allowing in the intake from Hungary.
The interior ministry said the decision was an exception to help avert a humanitarian crisis.
New arrivals in Germany were welcomed by smiling and cheering members of the public at train stations across the country.
On Sunday, a group of cars driven by German and Austrian activists travelled to the Hungarian border to pick up migrants and distribute food.
The migrants had travelled north through the Balkans – Greece, Macedonia and Serbia – before arriving at Hungary’s southern border, and on to Austria and Germany.
Syrians are the largest group travelling, followed by Afghans and Eritreans.
A rift has developed within the EU over how to deal with the crisis.
Hungary has accused Germany of encouraging the influx, and is pressing ahead with plans to tighten border controls and could send troops to its southern frontier if parliament agrees.
It has opened a new reception camp for migrants in southern border village of Roszke, and is due to finish its border fence this month.
The UN’s Refugee Chief Antonio Guterres said the crisis was “manageable” if member states could agree a joint plan.
A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.
Police in Ngoma District have arrested six people in connection with stealing a money safe containing Rwf10 million from Konoike Construction Limited.
The suspects, who include five employees of the Japanese Construction firm operating in the district, were arrested on Saturday in possession of the stolen money.
They had Rwf3.1 million and $8,570.
The suspects include a company security guard and a cleaner.
Eastern Region Police Spokesperson Emmanuel Kayigi said the suspects committed the crime on Friday, when they connived to steal the safe from the offices of the company.
“They entered the company premises at night and stole the container. The guard, the cleaner, three other employees and an ironsmith who broke the safe are now under Police custody. Each of the suspects was found with a portion of the money after they had shared it among themselves,” he said.
“Investigations were successful largely because the company managers immediately informed Police about the incident. In a short time, we had zeroed in on the prime suspects and arrested them. We discovered that they had planned to escape to a neighbouring country.”
Yamasta Yasuki, who received the recovered money from Police on behalf of the firm, expressed gratitude toward Rwanda National Police for its efficient investigations, noting that he was surprised when they were informed that their money had been recovered.
“We have worked in many countries and such incidences have occurred before, but it is the first time we have received back the stolen money. Sometimes even when the suspects are arrested, it is difficult to get back all the money, but it was amazing that we got it all back,” Yasuki said.
A surgery campaign launched in June by the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) ended last week with more than 2,000 patients benefiting from either major or minor surgeries.
The campaign, which was taken to different parts of the country, targeted people with surgical diseases in the country.
At a news briefing at CHUK, on Friday, Dr Jean Claude Byiringiro, a consultant general surgeon at the hospital, said the campaign, which he said ended successfully, was a pilot phase to guide similar drives.
“At the beginning, it was unbelievable since there were a lot of patients who were waiting for us. We were few that we had to use a lot of effort to serve all that turned up during screenings,” Dr Byiringiro said.
He added that the plan is to ensure the campaign is continuous owing to the impact of the three-month pilot phase made.
Dr Faustin Ntirenganya, who headed the programme, commended the commitment by the medical team.
“We worked overtime to make sure people benefitted. We found people who had lived with ailments for long,” Dr Ntirenganya said.
“For instance, you would find a person who has spent 15 years waiting for the treatment.”
He cited other challenges such as lack of equipment and general infranstructure that hampered their ability to work at some facilities.
“We only worked with three referral hospitals because they are the ones that had the facilities we needed. This is one of the challenges we met, otherwise we look forward to continue carrying out this programme after every three months,” Ntirenganya said.
During the outreach programme, 2,174 people were operated on.
The programme took place at Ruhengeri, Rwamagana, Kibungo and at the main hospital, CHUK.
TV and movies have taken over our lives these days. That’s not to say that watching certain TV shows or movies is a waste of our time—there are many well-made, thought-provoking things to be watched. And of course, thanks to Kindle, carrying even multiple books around at the same time has become infinitely easier and more practical.
Still, however, it is a bit sad how the the old-fashioned art of reading a regular paper book seems to be slowly fading away into the past. It sometimes seems as though children today do not even know the scent of an old book, a book that has touched the lives of so many, and how wonderful it can be to settle down on the couch with such a book on a rainy day and disappear into the world it creates.
Buy a Book Day was created for the purpose of reminding people how much joy simple black print on a white background can bring when it awakens your imagination and transports you far away.
{{The History of Buy a Book Day}}
Buy a Book Day was created in 2012 to educate people to the importance of books to our culture and civilisation as w whole. It is inarguable that books have been one of the greatest contributors to the advancement of the human race, by moving the hearts of many over the ages, stimulating their imaginations and helping them see the world in an entirely different light. Books have also served the simple but vital purpose of passing knowledge down from generation to generation.
The creators of Buy a Book Day want nothing more than for people take a moment to truly appreciate books and their numerous roles in the human experience.
{{How to Celebrate Buy a Book Day}}
The best way to celebrate this day is to do what its creators meant for us to do, buy a book. Buy a Book Day does not require for you to spend excessive amounts of money. All you have to do to enjoy it thoroughly is invest even a small amount of money in a book, either first- or second-hand and then soak up all of the knowledge and wisdom in it.
Especially if you haven’t read an actual book in a long time, you are sure to be pleasantly surprised at just how quickly a well-written books draws you in, making you as much a part of the story as the characters in it. And do not be fooled into thinking that the only books worth reading are ones written hundreds of years ago—there are many contemporary authors alive and active today that pen masterpieces each and every year.
Daniel Woodrell, for example, wrote the critically acclaimed and tremendously powerful novel “Winter’s Bone” that was later adapted into an equally acclaimed film starring Jennifer Lawrence. J.K. Rowling, author of the world-famous Harry Potter series, has been named one of the most influential women in Britain for her the amount of children and teenagers she got to fall in love with reading.
In other words, it doesn’t matter whether whether you like the classics or contemporary literature or whether you can afford to buy a brand new hardcover book or just a dog-eared softcover book from the local thrift shop—you can celebrate Buy a Book Day anyway.
Sudan and China signed yesterday in Beijing a contract according to which Sudan in favour of Sudan Airways besides two trains to transport passengers between Khartoum and Wad-Medani along with the construction of new railway lines and a contract to repair the locomotives in Sudan.
Al Bashir, who is in on official visit to the People’s Republic of China to participate in the celebration of the victory over Japan in World War II, welcomed the Chinese investments in Sudan lauding the considerable contributions of the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC) in supporting the Sudanese economy.
President Al Bashir attended the signing of the contracts during a meeting that included Sudanese and Chinese businessmen.
The two countries also signed a framework agreement between Sudanese Shipping Lines and a Chinese company to establish a free zone area in Port Sudan and another agreement in favour of GIAD Company for vehicles’ and trucks’ assembling.
It is to be noted that the CNPC expressed desire to expand its investments in Sudan and its readiness to work in increasing oil production.
For his part, Minister of Petroleum and Gas, Dr. Mohammed Zayed Awad said after his meeting with CNPC officials that the company offered to work in natural gas explorations in Block (8) which is located in Dindir area in Sennar State.
He revealed the signature of an agreement between the two sides to utilize the explored natural gas in that Block.
Zayed said that Al Bashir has called the CNPC to increase its investments in Sudan in concentration in increasing the production in the existing oilfields, and that the company welcomed the President’s offer.
He disclosed that what is produced since 1999 is only 12% of the explored reserve of oil.
The Minister pledged to continue working to increase the production in the oilfields besides the expansion in exploration activity in the new Blocks.
He concluded that CNPC is thinking of establishing a fertilizer factory in Block (8) to utilize the natural gas considering that the area is one of the best agricultural areas in Sudan.
Turkey has signed 20 economic cooperation agreements with Sudan, a Sudanese official told the Anadolu Agency on Monday.
Speaking after the visit of the deputy undersecretary of the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs Ali Kemal Aydin to Sudan, the director of the European Department at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Youssef Alkordofani told Anadolu Agency that the agreements covered the various fields of security, agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunication, transportation, education, health, cultural exchange, electricity and humanitarian support.
He pointed out that the agreements on security and agriculture have been ratified by the parliaments of the two countries, and that the remaining agreements are expected to receive approval in the near future.
‘’Turkey has already agreed to sell Sudan planes and ships to rehabilitate the transportation sector which has been damaged due to American sanctions,’’ Alkordofani said.
‘’Turkey has also started to build a big Turkish university in Khartoum, and it is granting more than 100 scholarships for the Sudanese students’’ he added.
Measures will be taken to boost trade volume between the two countries, Aydin said.
‘’We are launching a wide call among Turkish businessmen to invest in various sectors in Sudan,’’ he added.
The ministries of foreign affairs in the two countries have on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the technical support to be offered by the Turkish ministry to its Sudanese counterpart.
The Turkish official said that the first phase of technical support will cost around $1 million and the second phase will cost $2 million.
He said that they also agreed to push forward the implementation of the agreements between the two countries on security assistance Turkey has agreed to provide to Sudan.
An economic conference will be held in Khartoum in November to discuss investment opportunities for the Turkish private sector in Sudan, according to the director of bilateral relations at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Daffaa Alah Alhaj.
The Sudanese diplomat said that Sudan will offer preferential advantages for the Turkish investment.
The government collected Rwf871.4 billion in both tax and non-tax revenues during the Financial Year 2014/15, according to Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA).
This represents a 12.6 per cent increase compared to the previous financial year, when Rwf782.5 billon was collected.
The figures were announced, yesterday, by RRA Commissioner-General Richard Tusabe during a news conference at the revenue body’s headquarters in Kimihurura in Kigali.
According to Tusabe, Rwf858.4 billion was collected in tax revenue against a target of Rwf878 billion for last financial year, reflecting an achievement of almost 97.8 per cent.
Equally, RRA managed to collect Rwf13 billion from non tax revenues against a target of Rwf10.2 billion, registering a surplus of Rwf2.8 billion (27.5 per cent) over the target.
“Decentralised taxes (trade licence, property tax and rental income tax) collection for 2014/15 was Rwf13.2 billion against a target of Rwf13.5 billion when you exclude fees. This means that total revenue collections grew by 12.6 per cent,” Tusabe said.
{{What this growth means
}}
According to Damien Ndizeye, a private economist and consultant based in Kigali, the growth means the country is moving towards self-reliance.
The government has said it expects domestic resources to finance up to 66 per cent of its Rwf1768.2 trillion National Budget for 2015/2016 financial year using domestic resources.
This means that Rwf1,174.2 billion must be sourced domestically, which puts more pressure on RRA to mobilise and collect this revenue.
{{Factors behind improved performance}}
Tusabe attributed the improved performance to good collaboration with various stakeholders, including Rwanda Cooperatives Agency, the Private Sector Federation and Rwanda Governance Board.
These, he said, played a big role in ensuring registration of quarries, maize milling business operators, commercial buildings and landlords within the City of Kigali for VAT.
Enforcement of the use of electronic billing machines (EBM) was yet another notable factor in the improved revenue collections, said Tusabe.
“We conducted regular checks to ensure that taxpayers were using EBM properly and filed their taxes. We also conducted more targeted campaigns about the new system,” he said.
So far, a total of 8,000 VAT-registered taxpayers use EBMs out of 12,000 in the country.
The revenue body is counting on this technology, among other strategies, to be able to meet its targets this fiscal year, Drocelle Mukashyaka, the deputy commissioner for taxpayer services, told The New Times.
Meanwhile, RRA cited the low inflation (1.3 per cent) during 2014/2015, the fall of global oil prices and reduced consumption of excisable products as some of the reasons they slightly missed the overall target.
As the revenue body sets its eyes at collecting resources that will help finance the National Budget by 66 per cent, the authority is still faced with resistance by some taxpayers to use EBMs as required by law, which, according to Tusabe, is affecting VAT collection.
RRA also decried non compliant taxpayers who they declare/file tax returns, but refuse to remit the due taxes, until they are forced.
“Some businesses also still undervalue their goods during import clearance process, which, in turn, impacts on the revenue collection,” Tusabe added.
{{Key priorities for FY 2015/16}}
According to RRA, the tax revenue target for the Financial Year 2015/16 is Rwf972.27 billion, which includes tax revenue equivalent to Rwf949.19 billion and the local government tax of Rwf23.08 billion.
In addition, the non-tax revenue target for the fiscal year 2015/16 is Rwf45.4 billion composed of RRA non-tax revenue of Rwf13.0 billion and local government fees totalling to Rwf32.4 billion.
To achieve these targets, RRA is planning to continue taxpayer registration process, enhance EBM monitoring systems and continue enforcing the payment of tax arrears among many other measures.
STOCKHOLM: Rwanda’s new envoy to the Nordic Countries, Ambassador Christine Nkulikiyinka on Thursday presented her credentials to King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
King Gustav commended Rwanda’s post-genocide recovery and the reconciliation process.
Nkulikiyinka briefed the king on developments in Rwanda and underlined the Country’s commitment and efforts towards poverty eradication. She said Rwanda was keen on strengthening its relations with Sweden, especially through trade and investment.
The Swedish king complimented the ‘Kwita izina’ initiative as a tool for conservation. He noted that his son—Prince Carl Philip—had travelled to Rwanda in 2010 to visit and photograph mountain gorillas. Prince Philip accompanied renowned nature photographer and filmmaker Matias Klum.
The king also highlighted his interest in peace processes in the great lakes region—a matter on which he was updated by Ambassador Nkulikiyinka.
Since the end of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, Sweden has been one of Rwanda’s main bilateral partners. In June, the Nordic Country approved a new five-year development cooperation agreement with Rwanda worth SEK900 million (approximately USD130 Million).
Among the areas Sweden is currently focusing in its bilateral agreement with Rwanda is higher education and research. An extensive cooperation agreement between several Swedish universities and the University of Rwanda has resulted in the commencement of new programs at the University of Rwanda, exchanges between faculty and at present about 50 Rwandan PhD scholars pursuing studies in Sweden.
Later on Thursday, Nkulikiyinka was due to meet the Rwandan community from the Stockholm area. Prior to her posting in Stockholm, Nkulikiyinka was Rwanda’s Ambassador to Germany.
The Rwandan Embassy to the Nordic Countries is accredited to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
