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The purpose of this course is to train new Aircraft Dispatchers, with no previous aviation experience, to the professional standard required by the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (RCAA). Upon successful completion of the course and exam, the students will receive their flight dispatcher licenses issued by the RCAA.

During this course, the student will go from having no aviation knowledge to an aviation professional ready to be employed. Some of the subjects that will be covered during the ten-week course are Introduction to Flight Dispatch; Meteorology and Aero-medical Factors; Navigation, Aerodynamics; Weight and Balance; Performance; Air Traffic Control; Emergency situations; Communication; Flight Planning; Dispatch Resource Management; Flight and Duty Computation and Regulation; ETOPS / EROPS Flight Planning Consideration and Regulation; Advanced Performance Calculation.

{{Who is an Aircraft Dispatcher?
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The Aircraft Dispatcher can be described in other words as “the Airline Captain on ground”; his job is one of the most respected and best paying positions in the aviation industry.

The Airline Captain and Dispatcher are held jointly responsible for the safety of the flight; together they enable the aircraft to arrive at its destination on schedule with the maximum payload and at the lowest operating cost. The Aircraft Dispatcher considers en-route and destination weather, winds aloft, alternate destinations, fuel required, optimal altitudes, and traffic flow. He maintains a constant watch on all flights dispatched and is responsible in joint agreement with the airline captain for flight planning, route and altitude selection, fuel load requirements, aircraft legality and complying with the local and international regulations. The Aircraft Dispatcher also must ride periodically in the cockpit with the flight crew to observe flight routes, conditions, and airports.

It is the responsibility of the Dispatcher to delay or cancel a flight when necessary and to make any other operational decisions necessary to ensure the safety of the flight. The Dispatcher has always been a very important individual in the operation of an airline and will certainly continue to be so in the future.

Upon completion of the course, many Job opportunities such as Flight Dispatcher, Assistant Flight Dispatcher, Flight Operations Officers, Operational Assistants, Ground Dispatch Controller and Station Manager await the formed professionals. Both commercial airlines, such as RwandAir and private aviation charter operators, such as Akagera, employ professional Aircraft Dispatchers. Furthermore, regulatory bodies, such as RCAA, also hire Aircraft Dispatchers to oversee aircraft operators throughout their jurisdiction.

The digital banking strategy “Coge mBank”, was launched on the occasion of the crowning Miss Rwanda 2018.

The app runs on both iOS and Android mobile devices.

Following the launch of the product, the Managing Director of the bank Mr. Cherno Gaye commented: “This development is in line with the bank’s digital aspirations and a manifestation of the bank’s commitment to bring banking services closer to the clients.”

As customers continue to embrace digital channels around the globe, Cogebanque continues to be an active pioneer of digital banking solutions, and provide digital financial services and solutions to customers, in line with the country’s drive to create a cashless economy. “This mobile wallet app provides simple, functional, and relevant ways of banking from anywhere at any time with the Cogebanque. With the app, all you need to transact is your smartphone”.

Yvon Gilbert Nishimwe the Head of E-Banking at Cogebanque said that with “Coge mBank” customers manage various accounts, paying bills transferring money, and conduct numerous other banking transactions.

Antoine Iyamuremye, the Marketing Manager at Cogebanque said; “We launched this product to keep making it simple and possible for Cogebanque customers. This is a means of taking control of your accounts whether you’re on the go or curled up on the couch at your home, day or night.”

COGEBANQUE (Compagnie Générale de Banque Limited) is a commercial bank licensed by the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) in 1999. The bank’s performance for the last 5 years has been remarkable with year-on-year growth of more than 20% in assets and profitability.

The decision announced by RMC Executive Secretary Emmanuel Mugisha at a press conference on Tuesday, sparked outrage among media practitioners with some saying that they are not ready to renew the card every year.

“This is one of the recommendations from the recent retreat of RMC agents and its partners. The idea behind this decision is to be able to control those who call themselves media professionals when they are not,” he said.

RMC maintains the Rwf20,000 as cost for the card regardless the reduction of validity.

“It is easy to draw up a list of media professionals, to follow the journalists for one year instead of three, to establish the number of complaints against them on offenses committed,” said Mugisha adding that the offenses will decide on the temporary or permanent suspension of one’s press card.

Journalists expressed their disappointment in the RMC’ decision and wondered why the press card’s cost remains the same yet the validity has been reduced by three times.

“The recommendations issued are very unfortunate. We had made some progress so far but now you’re reversing things. You’re shortening the period and you’re not reducing the costs of this card. Few journalists will come to validate it yet others will also continue to work without it. There will be fewer members remaining with RMC, “said the City Radio’s Oswald Mutuyeyezu.

More journalists criticised the decision as inappropriate. There are 804 RMC members accredited and operating in Rwanda.

The team at NEXUS Academy considers training as one of the most critical aspects of Aircraft Operations in achieving safe and successful operations.

As a way to contribute to Rwandan aviation sector, NEXUS Academy started the first Aircraft Dispatcher class in Kigali in November 2015. The course was completed within only eight weeks and graduated 14 students. reflecting the dedication and hard work of this pioneering group.

Fourteen students with no aviation background enrolled in the course, and the professional NEXUS Aircraft Dispatcher instructor dedicated himself to the success of these students.

Demonstrating patience, professionalism and kindness, the instructor took the time
required to effectively prepare the students with the knowledge and skills required to pass the Aircraft Dispatcher examination and become licensed Dispatchers.

All the enrolled students completed the training course and passed the knowledge, oral and practical tests. They have since obtained their aircraft dispatchers’ licenses from Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (RCAA) and are currently working as professional aircraft dispatchers.

Twelve of the students are currently working with RwandAir, one is with Akagera and one is with RCAA. They are competent aircraft dispatchers and are contributing immensely to air safety and the economic benefit to their various organisations.

“The success of this training has served as the model for further training to empower Rwandese in the aircraft dispatcher discipline to take operational control of aircraft as they fly around the world,” says Mr. Thierry Nzamurambaho, the Chief Executive for NEXUS Africa.

NEXUS Academy is an approved Aviation Training Organization (ATO) by RCAA. Their curriculum, training schedule and examination procedures were also approved by RCAA.
How NEXUS nurtured 14 Rwandan Aircraft Dispatchers in 8 weeks

NEXUS Academy has committed to creating competent aircraft dispatchers from both the local and international aviation sectors.

The team at NEXUS Academy considers training as one of the most critical aspects of Aircraft Operations in achieving safe and successful operations.

As a way to contribute to Rwandan aviation sector, NEXUS Academy started the first Aircraft Dispatcher class in Kigali in November 2015. The course was completed within only eight weeks and graduated 14 students. reflecting the dedication and hard work of this pioneering group.

Fourteen students with no aviation background enrolled in the course, and the professional NEXUS Aircraft Dispatcher instructor dedicated himself to the success of these students.

Demonstrating patience, professionalism and kindness, the instructor took the time
required to effectively prepare the students with the knowledge and skills required to pass the Aircraft Dispatcher examination and become licensed Dispatchers.

All the enrolled students completed the training course and passed the knowledge, oral and practical tests. They have since obtained their aircraft dispatchers’ licenses from Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (RCAA) and are currently working as professional aircraft dispatchers.

Twelve of the students are currently working with RwandAir, one is with Akagera and one is with RCAA. They are competent aircraft dispatchers and are contributing immensely to air safety and the economic benefit to their various organisations.

“The success of this training has served as the model for further training to empower Rwandese in the aircraft dispatcher discipline to take operational control of aircraft as they fly around the world,” says Mr. Thierry Nzamurambaho, the Chief Executive for NEXUS Africa.

NEXUS Academy is an approved Aviation Training Organization (ATO) by RCAA. Their curriculum, training schedule and examination procedures were also approved by RCAA.

NEXUS provides professional aviation services globally for governments, corporations, operators, airlines and private individuals. The company was founded in 2010 and has grown rapidly by offering exceptional service and a premium customer experience to aircraft owners and operators worldwide.

NEXUS’ core business lines are flight operations and support services, aircraft management, professional aviation training, aviation risk management and aviation fuel sales. The company has operations across the globe with its headquarters in Jeddah-KSA and offices in Riyadh, Dubai, Manila, Kigali, Mumbai, Monaco, Shanghai, Chengdu, Urumqi, Yardley and Houston.

The NEXUS Academy provides professional aviation training in Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, China and India and offers courses across the core disciplines of piloting, maintenance engineering, aircraft dispatching, ground handling, customer service, safety, quality and risk management.

NEXUS owns Wyvern, the world’s leading third-party auditor of private, corporate and commercial flight departments and renowned safety advisor, and has engaged Wyvern to enhance safety across its operations globally. Wyvern also provides instructors and expertise for drone (UAS) operators and end-users through its program, EXACT.

NEXUS recently established Fuellink Services, an independent supplier of jet fuel across the globe. Fuellink leverages the buying power of NEXUS to offer competitive jet fuel prices to its clients no matter where they travel.

Chairs, cupboards and bed frames are in various stages of construction around the dimly-lit shop. Off in a corner by the door is a project unlike any other.

It’s a new undertaking for the carpenter of 20 years — and for Rwanda. The finished product would be the first Rwandan-made piano, a musical milestone for this landlocked East African country. It would also be the first such instrument produced in Africa since South Africa-based Dietmann, a German company, shut down production in 1989.

But the road to victory is a difficult one. Much like Rwanda, which is known as the “land of a thousand hills,” the mission to build a piano faces a series of challenges, from accessibility of parts to the skills necessary to make it a success.

“This will be hard to make the first piano, but the second one? The second one will be easy,” Mulumeoderwa says self-assuredly as a shy smile slides across his face.

{{A Mad Idea
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That unflappable confidence was the catalyst for what his British-born business partner initially deemed a crazy, mad idea.

“It’s not that it’s a particularly innovative thing we’re doing,” Mulumeoderwa’s piano-building partner Marion Grace Woolley says. “It’s where we’re doing it that’s so strange. It still blows my mind when I walk into that workshop and see the dirt floor or workers using shards of glass to smooth the wood, and I think, ‘Wow, you can actually build something this complex on the backstreets of Kigali.’”

Woolley, who’s lived on and off in Rwanda since 2007, grew up around pianos. For her, a piano makes a house feel like a home. She says she’d long sought one for her home in Rwanda but had found the word “piano” in Rwanda to be synonymous with electric keyboard. The electric kind were easy to find. Tracking down a stringed version was far more complicated.

Her search led her to a 1968 Russian Lirika upright, for sale by an Egyptian expat. The piano was advertised for 1 million Rwandan francs ― about $1,160 ― which was beyond Woolley’s budget. A few keys were broken, and the instrument was out of tune. Still, Woolley, who works in non-profit consulting, says she knew “no one ever sells pianos in Rwanda.” So she seized the opportunity.

“It could have been falling apart on all the sides,” Woolley explains. “But it was a piano and it played. It was the only piano that I had seen in about three years.”

She bought the Lirika in December 2016, and the repairs became a passion project. She watched YouTube videos, posted questions on piano forums and emailed manufacturers.

One day soon after Woolley brought the Lirika home, Mulumeoderwa came to drop off the tables and bed he made for her. His eyes lit up when he saw the piano, she says. She wondered: Could he make something like that?

Mulumeoderwa inspected the Lirika, even though he already knew the answer. He’d spent the past two decades working with wood ― a key material for a piano.

“When I see something [made] of wood, I know I can make what I see,” he says. “I told Marion, ‘I am sure I can make the piano.’”

{{Striking A Chord On Indiegogo
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With that, Kigali Keys was born, named after Rwanda’s capital city.

The duo set up a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo in March 2017 with the goal of raising around $8,000. By June, they’d reached their target, and Mulumeoderwa got started. He puts his normal carpentry work aside for one day a week devoted exclusively to the piano.

“This is the big challenge, because this one I cannot give to someone to make,” Mulumeoderwa says. “I can only do it myself.”

While woodwork comes easily to Mulumeoderwa, he has needed help finding other materials for the nearly 12,000 parts inside the piano’s body.

For Kigali Keys to succeed, Woolley had to deconstruct her long-sought Lirika ― taking it apart so Mulumeoderwa could study the skeleton and copy the parts.

“The biggest risk is not being able to put my own piano back together,” Woolley says. “I have this nightmare that at the end of all this, I’ll end up with no piano at all. But I am confident we can do it and put [mine] back together.”

Other steps, too, are ensuring the duo meets their goal. They’ve employed the knowledge of specialists at Howard Pianos Industries in Wisconsin, U.S.A., and a father-son technician team at Key-Sure Pianos in Durban, South Africa. Woolley has been in touch with the folks at Howard to source materials and to learn about the piano’s more technical aspects.

“I thought [the project] sounded exciting, and it sounded like she had a lot to learn but was pursuing the avenues she needed to complete the project,” Howard says. That includes purchasing necessary parts from manufacturers, communicating with designers and builders, working off the manual Pianos Inside Out by Mario Igrec and using the Lirika as a template.

Woolley’s piano is in pieces throughout Mulumeoderwa’s shop: The bare bones hug the doorway of a modest office, the Lirika’s old keyboard is inside, laid out across a desk like a big, toothy smile.

{{One Key At A Time
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One recent Monday afternoon, as the skies begin to close in for rain, Mulumeoderwa places a plank of European pine on a workbench and plugs in a jigsaw cutter. Wielding the tool with his right hand as his left holds the wood steady, Mulumeoderwa cuts in a concentrated slide upward, the angry cry of the machine breaking through the otherwise quiet room.

“I choose special places where I cut the wood,” he explains. “There can’t be a crack [in the plank]. Maybe we can make more than five keys with one meter plank, but if we want good quality, there is no way we can make more than five.”

He estimates it will take him three weeks to make all 88 keys. Then he’ll move on to the piano’s soundboard.

Some hurdles have slowed overall progress on the piano, though. The string frame, piano strings and the action ― three fundamental elements of any piano, particularly the action, which connects the keys and the strings to produce the piano’s sound — require parts that aren’t made in this part of Africa. To avoid import fees, Mulumeoderwa and Woolley have had to think outside the box.

For example, instead of using felt — an elusive fabric in Africa — to make the piano’s hammers, Woolley and Mulumeoderwa used recycled flip-flops sourced from a social enterprise in Kenya.

“We are going to give them a go and see how it works,” Woolley says, acknowledging they might have to reassess. “We won’t know if it works until we have the instrument stringed.”

Forging their own string frame, typically made of cast-iron, has been the biggest accomplishment so far, according to Woolley. Their first attempt, in which they worked with a Rwandan metal worker who owns a small foundry in Kigali, was unsuccessful. Mulumeoderwa suggested they try Chillington, a metalwork factory in the city that specializes in wheelbarrow production. The result, with an engraved logo for Kigali Keys — a K flanked by two musical notes — beat all expectations.

“I posted a picture of the final gold-coated frame on a forum about pianos,” Woolley says. “They didn’t believe that it had been made in Rwanda.”

Strings, however, proved difficult to find in Africa. It took the team months — and a lot of expert help from around the world — to track down the thin, steel strings needed for the instrument’s midsection and treble. Woolley turned to South Africa’s Key-Sure Pianos to determine the exact measurements they needed for their prototype and to see whether they can be acquired in Africa. Unfortunately, Woolley says, the team eventually had to purchase the strings from England, from the Oxford-based Early Keyboard Agency.

Their creativity has been driven in part by the Made in Rwanda campaign, a government initiative launched in 2016 to encourage local production and consumption. Woolley and Mulumeoderwa hope to showcase their final prototype at 2018’s “Made in Rwanda Expo,” typically held at the end of each year, with the goal of one day building pianos and selling them to Rwanda’s emerging middle class and expats.

{{Builder’s Doubts
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A Master Some are skeptical about their plan, like Lothar Schell a master piano builder and former factory manager at Dietmann, the last known manufacturer on the continent. When the company was still in operation, they exported pianos to more than 33 countries. Only a small number were sold on the continent, specifically to South Africa, Egypt, Namibia and Rhodesia, known today as Zimbabwe.

The 80-year-old piano consultant, who is still active in the industry, considers Mulumeoderwa’s task too difficult. Among his concerns are the lack of available materials in Africa and the preciseness of the construction, particularly the piano’s soundboard and its cast-iron frame. It’s one thing to build a frame, he says, but another thing to make it strong enough to take the 27,000 pounds of tension produced from the piano’s strings without buckling or breaking.

It’s more than the frame that needs to be just right for the piano to work.

“A piano is built to the climate,” Schell says. “It needs about 60 percent moisture content in the air, and [a temperature] of 22 to 23 degrees Celsius [around 73 degrees Fahrenheit].”

Despite the odds, Kigali Keys is aiming to end on a high note.

While the prototype is still in the works — they hope to finish within six months — Kigali Keys’ debut pianist is already lined up. Eizinanan Pascal, a Rwandan musician and piano teacher who goes by the name Paco, will be first to tickle the keys.

“I can’t stop smiling,” the 26-year-old says. “I am so excited to hear it. It will be so good to see a Rwandan guy play a piano that was made here in Rwanda.”

Alexandra E. Petri is a writer for National Geographic Traveler and National Geographic online. Her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Elle, The Lily and EurasiaNet.

Reporting for this piece was supported by a fellowship from the International Women’s Media Foundation.

The award was given on the 24th February, 2018 In Johannesburg, South Africa.

The award is part of the Persons of the Year Awards managed by the African Leadership Magazine, an institution based in London, UK.

Among other leaders celebrated that evening are, H.E. Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, as the African of the Year, President Marc Ravalomanana, former president of Madagascar, as the African Political Leader of the Year, and other African Leaders working in various industries and social activities.

Africa Re achieved in 2017 a premium income (turnover) of USD 747 million, paid more than USD 500 million in settling claims and maintained its A financial rating with A.M. Best and A – with Standard & Poor’s, all with stable outlook.

Later in the same evening, Mr. Corneille Karekezi was inducted in the 2018 Africa’s CEOs Hall of Fame, during a grandiose ceremony. This is another recognition, among many more in the past, of his visionary and transformational leadership in the insurance and reinsurance industry of the African continent.

Talking to the media, Mr. Corneille Karekezi, said that “He is proud and honoured to be inducted in the African Leadership CEO’s Hall of Fame and to be considered as one the few persons who did their best for the development of Corporate Africa”. He added that his company, Africa Re, will continue to work for a speedy development of the continent and it’s people and to be a leading and inspiring example that Africa can produce the best in the business world.

A total of 125 officers drawn from different units of Rwanda National Police (RNP) took part in the two-week exercise codenamed: “Crackdown.”

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Emmanuel K. Gasana, while presiding over the official closing of the exercise, observed that terrorism is a global security threat that requires readiness, capacity and capabilities to deter evil plans by terror groups.

“There were failed attempts by some terror groups like FDLR and RNC to destabilize our country about five years ago. However, we need to note that the region remains fragile to terrorism, which calls for continuous training and developing modern methods of dealing with terror to detect and deter such evil plans,” IGP Gasana said.

He said that such terror attempts provided a big lesson to always be prepared with modern response skills and hi-tech equipment to be in control.

This, he added, is a deliberate plan for every police officer to acquire such anti terror and public order management skills.

The Police Chief challenged participants to make use of the acquired knowledge and skills whenever need arises.

“Training in counter terrorism, public order management and other policing fields is key for the force to professionally achieve its policing mandate and to make people and their property safe,” he said.

During the two weeks, participants covered key aspects such as; Command post set up, interoperability in counter terrorism operations, First aid and Voice procedures.

Other lessons include operations in built up areas, operation orders and briefs, air support, map reading and hostage rescue.