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  • Methane gas to boost economy and eliminate fear of explosion.

    Rwanda is targeting to reap US$ 25 billion in the next 50 years in the ongoing methane gas project in Lake Kivu if all the 60bn cubic metres of methane in the lake is extracted.

    Dr. Natacha Tofield Pasche, an expert in limnology said the extraction of methane is a double achievement for the government as it would reduce the methane threats and also provide energy for economic growth.

    Dr. Pasche who led a Franco-Swiss team of scientists studying the physicochemical characteristics of the lake observed that this would not only contribute to the development of the country but would also reduce the risk of cataclysmic explosion that would affect the people around the area.

    “The extraction will reduce methane gas threats and also contribute to the economy of the country,” Dr. Natasha Tofield Pasche, a Limnology Expert at Kivu Power Generation Pilot Project said during the press visit at the site recently.

    She illuminated that the main reasons for extracting methane gas in this lake are to ensure safety through removing methane and carbon dioxide, and protect the ecosystem by avoiding nutrient increase in the bio-zone as well as the economic gains of the country through generation of electricity among others.

    Pasche said that the accumulation of the methane gas in the lake has lasted over 800 years. “This proves that there is enough methane to be extracted because if not extracted, it would destroy the stability of the lake and also explode which will affect the surrounding areas,” he disclosed.

    At a moment ; Pasche, who also does the assessment of the methane project, said that the lake cannot explode since the gas pressure now stands at 55 percent of the saturation. She added that it would be dangerous if this was at the rate of 100 percent.

    The Engineer Operator at Kivu Pilot Plant Project 1, Hodari Muhire, said that the Kivu Power Generation Pilot Project, which is 100 percent owned by the government of Rwanda was estimated to produce 4.5megawatts per hour but since it is the first time the project has been undertaken in the whole world, there were miscalculations by experts. He noted that the project currently produces only 2megawatts per hour which contributes 2.6 percent to the national grid.

  • Rwanda targets projects worth $550m in 2011


    Rwanda is targeting investment projects worth $550-million and hopes tourism revenues will rise to $216-million in 2011, officials said on Wednesday.

    The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said investments projects had increased by 150% in the first quarter of 2011 to $87-million, mainly boosted by the February registration of the Cadilla pharmaceutical company, worth $65-million.

    Rwanda was ranked by the World Bank as the country that introduced the most pro-business reforms in 2009, and it came second to Kazakhstan in 2010. The country is pushing hard to attract investment to become a middle-income nation by 2020.

    The RDB also said tourism projects registered in the first quarter increased by 32% from the same period a year earlier. It said tourist arrivals jumped 32% to 201 088 while revenues climed to $56,6-million from $43-million.

    While its east African neighbours Tanzania and Kenya are more renowned tourist destinations, Rwanda is trying to attract more visitors to its mountainous national parks which are home to gorillas.

    Rwanda earned $200-million from tourism in 2010.

  • Troubled Rwandatel seeks foreign investors

    Rwandatel may turn to a foreign investor if a local court does not liquidate the debt-laden telecoms firm, its interim management said on Wednesday.

    Rwanda’s telecoms regulator stripped Rwandatel of its mobile licence for failing to meet key performance targets in terms of investment, network roll-out, coverage and quality of service.

    The company, 80 percent owned by the Libyan African Investment Portfolio (LAP), acquired its operating licence in 2007 but only started mobile operations in December 2008.

    The Rwandan government has taken custody of some Libyan-owned assets in line with an international freeze, but has not explicitly stated that the Libyan investment in Rwandatel has been frozen, given the pending court ruling.

    The telecoms regulator said on Wednesday it would await the court ruling to see what options there would be to protect the interests of Rwandatel creditors.

    Last month, a Rwandan court appointed an interim manager to oversee the company’s affairs for the next two months, including paying debts of 54.3 billion Rwandan francs.

    However, the company maintained its fixed line and data license, which accounted for 60 percent of its revenues.

    Richard Mugisha, the company’s interim manager, dispelled media reports that foreign telecom companies, particularly Vodacom of South Africa, were already in talks with the company and the regulator about a possible take over. 

    “I have not been approached by any telecom investor. However, if the court rules that the company shouldn’t be liquidated our plan of action would definitely require the involvement of a strategic investor,” Mugisha said.

    “The kind of assets the company has can only be used by someone who is established in this business and understands it. Keeping, or changing the brand identity of the company, would depend on the business decision of that investor. When that time comes we will definitely interest some people,” he said.

    According to figures presented on Wednesday, the debt includes 1.7 billion francs in interconnection fees owed to MTN Rwanda and Millicom’s Tigo Rwanda. It also owes the government 3.6 billion and 400 million francs in regulatory fees.

    The company will remain 80 percent owned by the Libyan fund with the other 20 percent in the hands of Rwanda’s social security fund until the court makes its ruling, the country’s telecoms regulator said.

    Before revocation of its licence, Rwandatel had over 500,000 subscribers, MTN Rwanda 2.3 million and Tigo Rwanda 700,000 clients. MTN Rwanda was once forced to payoff Rwf 70 million ($145,000) for failure to meet contractual obligations. 

  • Rwanda Plans to Start Sinking Geothermal Wells

    Rwanda plans to start drilling exploratory geothermal wells in an area that may have at least 700 megawatts of steam power, following in the footsteps of neighboring Kenya, Energy Minister Coletha Ruhamya said.

    Rwanda lies within the same Great Rift Valley fault system as Kenya, where shifting tectonic plates provide sizeable reserves of geothermal energy. Kenya, Africa’s biggest geothermal power producer, estimates the extent of its untapped power resources at as much as 10,000 megawatts, enough to meet its own electricity needs and export the surplus.

    “Geothermal is the area that the government of Rwanda wants to prioritize,” Ruhamya said, according to a statement e- mailed from the Nairobi-based Geothermal Development Co. today. “Since Kenya has progressed far in the area, we are looking for collaboration and partnership in capacity building, drilling and putting plants in place.”

    Ruhamya made the comments in a meeting yesterday with her Kenyan counterpart Kiraitu Murungi, according to the statement. She didn’t say when drilling may start. The New Times newspaper reported on March 10 that the country would start digging wells in August, citing Ruhamya.

    Experts from Kenya’s state-run Geothermal Development Co. are currently training 12 Rwandese students on how geothermal technology works, today’s statement said.

    Investigations into Rwanda’s geothermal potential began in 1982 with the north-western Volcanoes National Park and areas around Lake Kivu identified as possible sites, according to the energy ministry’s website.

  • Business Life After Death in Rwanda

    Last month, three Rwandan owners, graduates of the three-year BPeace program, visited the United States during a trip that paired them with American businesses in their industries. The participants included Languida Nyirababeruka, who founded [Pompe Funebre Twifatanye->http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNTgQE0P_YU], a funeral home, after the [1994 genocide->http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm].

    Ms. Nyirababeruka, a former teacher who lost her job for political reasons, ran a tailoring business before 1994. The genocide claimed her husband and several family members, as well as her home and business. When it was over, she had to locate her three children, now in their 20s. “After the genocide, I started from scratch,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. A United Nations contact helped Ms. Nyirababeruka get a job as a cook, and she began to rebuild her life in Kigali.

    The idea of opening a funeral home took shape after Ms. Nyirababeruka spent an exhausting day helping a friend plan a funeral. At the time, there was no one business that provided all funeral-related items and services, like coffins, transportation and flowers. Ms. Nyirababeruka said her friend was forced to “run around, buying things here and there.”

    When Ms. Nyirababeruka opened Pompe Funebre Twifatanye in 2003, her friends and neighbors were uncomfortable with the concept of a business that profited from death. Now, many have become her customers, and she has two competitors. “She’s changing their culture,” said Craig Baker, a BPeace mentor who works at Brady Funeral Home in Danville, Pa., which was the host of Ms. Nyirababeruka for part of her stay. Mr. Baker met Ms. Nyirababeruka two years ago when he traveled to Rwanda to share his expertise.

    Today, Ms. Nyirababeruka employs 10 people, including a recently hired carpenter who makes the coffins that she previously outsourced. Her business, which supports her family, had 2009 revenue of $26,435. Though she said that owning a business places her in Rwanda’s growing middle class, Ms. Nyirababeruka said her company must become more profitable.

    She looked forward to learning from her counterparts in the United States. After leaving Pennsylvania, Ms. Nyirababeruka visited [Cobble Hill Chapels->http://www.cobblehillchapels.com/] in Brooklyn. Brady Funeral Home and Cobble Hill Chapels shared best practices and arranged field trips to the businesses that service the industry, including florists, cemeteries, headstone makers and a morgue.

    During a meeting with the staff at Cobble Hill, Ms. Nyirababeruka admitted she often reduces her prices out of sympathy for grieving families and then regrets it. Although fixed prices are virtually unknown in Rwanda, Ms. Nyirababeruka vowed to establish them for her services and to make no exceptions. She was intrigued to learn that many American funeral homes offer interest-bearing accounts that make it easier for families to save for future funeral costs. Back in Rwanda, she plans to educate people to prepare for funeral expenses and to increase her chances of collecting them.

    At Cobble Hill, Ms. Nyirababeruka also learned about potential add-on products and services that could boost her profits, like rosary beads and casket engraving. While some practices (like embalming) would be too costly for her to implement now, she learned how to create printed extras, like prayer cards, using a computer. She left Cobble Hill with shopping bag full of samples, including thank-you notes and a guest book.

    Ms. Nyirababeruka hopes one day to pass her business on to her children. She is thinking about sending her son to a funeral services program that Mr. Baker attended in Pennsylvania and that they visited during her trip. Most of all, she said, she hoped her children will struggle less than she had.

  • BRALIRWA launches star search contest

    The country’s largest beverages manufacturer, Bralirwa through its Primus beer brand will sponsor a music competition dubbed ‘Primus Guma Guma Super Star’. Among the main highlights of the three month competition is a concert that will feature one of the most recognisable faces in world music Sean Kingston. The Jamaican-American singer is scheduled to jet into the country on 30th July 2011to grace the finals and perform live.

    In an exclusive interview with IGIHE.com, the brand manager of Primus and Heineken, Jean Pierre Uwizeye said that BRALIRWA through the Primus brand is launching the competition with initial ten contestants who have been preselected by the local media.

    Uwizeye said that in March this year, the local media were invited to conduct a pre-selection of the most promising artists who would be revealed on Saturday, 7th May 2011.

     ”After illuminating on the top ten artists on 7th May 2011, all those artistes will each receive RwF 1.5million. They will then perform concerts countrywide as a way of campaigning for votes,” Uwizeye said.

    He observed that the competition would be conducted in three phases with the first selection due for 16th May. The top ten artists would campaign from one province to the other and thereafter, the public would from 2nd July 2011 vote in their favourite musicians. Each fan would be limited to two sms votes.

    Uwizeye explained that BRALIRWA alongside the partner telecommunications companies would ensure there is no manipulation of the votes.

    Through the polling, fans will select the top seven contestants. Subsequently, the battle for the winner among the four finalists will take place from 9-16 July 2011. This time, the supporters will send in only one text message per week, which translates to two votes in two weeks.

    The winner will be declared on 30th of July. During the gala, Sean Kingston will perform live alongside Rwanda’s most talented artistes. The winner will scoop Rwf 6 million on top of a free ticket to the USA to record a song with Sean Kingston. 

    Uwizeye disclosed that the Primus Guma Guma Super Star contest is organised by promoters from other East African countries to make it a success. 

  • Promote team spirit- Governor urges local leaders

    The Governor of the Southern Province, Alphonse Munyentwari, has urged local leaders to promote team spirit and improve communication skills as a way of delivering better services in the community.

    The governor made the remarks during the celebration of the International Labour Day marked in Muhanga district this Tuesday.

    Munyentwari said : “There is need to build a team of leaders, which has good qualities of communication, friendly and highly disciplined. A team which is able to do monitoring, evaluation and cross checks its activities, so as to deliver services and promote good governance”

    The governor further asked local government leaders to consult with residents and opinion leaders during the implementation of community development activities build a strong collaborative effort with key players in development. 

    Guest speaker, Théoegene Karake, the secretary General of Association of Local government officials (RALGA), made a presentation on customer care and service delivery. He called upon local leaders to be examples in their community.

     “Customer care is a value that should be evident in all leaders and this can be done through exhibiting a character of simplicity and courtesy to the clientele”.

    “If the president of the republic can receive guests with a warm welcome, then what does it take for a local leader to stand up and receive residents who enter their offices ?” he posed.

    Other speakers at the celebrations included Brig. Gen.Mubarak Muganga, who also challenged leaders on the image of a leader in public, and the manner in which they spend a lot of time on their phone calls instead of attending to clients.

    Muhanga District also rewarded three best performing cooperative- and IABM cooperative which emerged top, was awarded Rwf500.000 cash prize to boost its maize growing activities.

    A district local leader’s savings and loans cooperative (KOPIMU) was also officially launched and its leaders elected during the celebrations held at the Muhanga Cultural center.

    The governor hailed the activities of cooperatives in Muhanga district, and encouraged cooperatives to also focus promote the growth and integration of human values with the members, so as to build a nation towards unity in development.

  • Rwandan neighbour: Kobagaya not at ethnic killings

    A former neighbour of a Rwandan accused of participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide testified Tuesday that he never saw the man at any of the ethnic killings in the area where they lived.

    Jean-Marie Byiringiro took the stand during the third day of testimony in the U.S. immigration trial of Lazare Kobagaya. Byiringiro, who admitted killing a 12-year-old Tutsi boy in exchange for a goat as part of the genocide, said he was at nearly all of the ethnic killings in the area where he and Kobagaya lived.

    Kobagaya, 84, is in a federal courtroom in Kansas, USA, fighting charges of unlawfully obtaining U.S. citizenship in 2006 with fraud and misuse of an alien registration card. The government, which is seeking to revoke his citizenship, contends he lied to U.S. immigration authorities about his involvement in the genocide. Kobagaya contends he is innocent.

    The arsons and killings related to Kobagaya’s case allegedly occurred in a rural community known as Birambo, where Kobagaya and his family lived at the time, as well as at Mount Nyakizu, where thousands of Tutsis had sought refuge.

    The government contends Kobagaya was a wealthy and influential leader who incited the arsons and killings in his community, along with Francois Bazaramba, a former Rwandan pastor who was sentenced last year to life imprisonment by a Finnish court for committing genocide against the Tutsi minority in 1994.

    Most of Byiringiro’s testimony implicated Bazaramba, not Kobagaya. In fact, Byiringiro, who served seven years in prison for his role in the genocide, told jurors that Kobagaya, a Hutu born in neighboring Burundi, didn’t have any power in the community because he was a refugee in Rwanda.

    When a mob gathered at Bazaramba’s house before the homes of Tutsis were set on fire on April 15, 1994, Byiringiro said, Kobagaya came out of his house only because people were in front of it. It was Bazaramba who spoke to the crowd, Byiringiro said. During the speech, Bazaramba called on Kobagaya to explain to the crowd that the Tutsis were bad people.

    Byiringiro said through a translator that Kobagaya did tell people that “we did not know the badness of the Tutsis” and that if they didn’t kill them, the Tutsis would kill the Hutus. However, Byiringiro told the jury he didn’t see Kobagaya join the rest of the crowd of more than 100 people in the arsons.

    His testimony came a day after another neighbor, Valens Murindangabo, testified that Kobagaya told the mob to burn down the houses of Tutsis so they wouldn’t return and ordered the killings of others.

    On Tuesday, defense attorney Kurt Kerns questioned Murindangabo, a former teacher who has served more than 10 years in prison for his role in the genocide, about an eight-page government form he had filled out as part of his own confession. The form asked him to list all witnesses and accomplices, but it didn’t have Kobagaya’s name.

    Murindangabo insisted an attachment had been lost that listed Kobagaya as participating in the genocide.

    The defense also hammered on the money he was receiving for his testimony — $96 a day while he is in the United States and $274 when he was in Rwanda for meeting with investigators. The defense team noted that is a lot of money in Rwanda, where the per capita annual income is $490 a year.

  • Rwanda projects lower farm output this year

    Growth in Rwanda’s agricultural output is seen slowing to 6 percent in 2011 from 7.1 percent last year due to a drought late in 2010, agriculture minister Agnes Kalibata has said.

    The country has invested in new agricultural production to raise food and export output, with agriculture a mainstay of recent economic growth.

    “Agriculture growth this year will not be as good as the previous year’s because of a drought at the end of last year, so we expect around 6 percent growth,” Kalibata said during a rural poverty conference.

    “Next year we go back to our original plan, 8 percent growth,” she added.

    Kalibata said increased agriculture investment would pave the way for Rwanda to reduce its dependence on two of its main imported crops — rice and wheat.

    “We are investing very strongly in irrigation systems that will see (rice) imports going down in the next three years,” she said.

    “We will probably be importing about 10 percent from 40 percent now by 2014. In wheat we also have investments coming in that indicate… we could produce in the next two-to-three years about 50 percent of what we consume in the country,” Kalibata added.

    Rwanda currently produces 60 percent of the rice it consumes, importing the shortfall, while it imports about 60 percent of its wheat needs.

    She said the country of about 11 million people did not have any food security fears, although the rising global cost of fuel and food prices could impact domestic inflation.

    “Inflation is going up because some imported commodities are going up because fuel is influencing them,” Kalibata said.

  • 2011/2012 budget estimates hit FrwI trillion mark

    For the first time in the country’s history, estimates show that the budget will total Frw 1.116 trillion compared to Frw 984 billion during the previous year.

    Finance minister John Rwangombwa made the announcement yesterday when he read the first budget estimates for the year 2011/2012 before Parliament. The presentation was meant to seek opinions from parliamentarians before the final reading on June 8, this year. 

    “We have resources, we increased domestic revenues and this budget reflects the collective determination of the government to mobilise resources,” Rwangombwa said in an interview after the presentation.

    Rwangombwa said that the priority areas include agriculture, trade and financial services. Revenues invested in productive capacities will increase from Rwf137.4bn to Rwf 199.7 billion in the upcoming budget, representing a 17.9 percent of the total budget. Other areas that recorded an increase in budget allocation include the human development and social sectors.

    The minister said that the ministry is increasing resources to support the budget but there has also been consistency in terms of the support received from development partners at 41 percent of the total budget.

    He attributed this to the country’s accountability on the funds donated by development partners. Development projects account for Rwf503 billion representing 40.9 percent of the budget compared to Rwf394b in the last financial year.

    Development projects account for Rwf503 billion representing 40.9 percent of the budget compared to Rwf394b in the last financial year.

    Rwangombwa further pointed out that tax revenues are projected to climb from 13 percent to 14.6 percent, while donor funding would decrease from 12.8 percent to 10.1 percent.