Telecom sector continues to grow on the continent
One sector that is rapidly growing, but still far behind its full potential is Telecommunications. Third telecom operator is entering Rwandan market
The telecommunications industry is set to change its face as efforts to sign on a third national telecommunications operator are in advanced stages. This third operator might come from four international telecommunications companies which have submitted bids to Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA).
Read it all here
We’re back!
It’s been a long and painstaking process, postponing our regular posting schedule time after time while installing a new platform for our blog, but finally it’s over and we’re back online. There might be a minor tweak on Tuesday or Wednesday and the sight will go off for an hour or two, but we’re proud to say that WE ARE BACK!
Stay tuned for new posts - as interesting as ever - on Tuesdayever
Update
Dear readers,
We are still working on transferring NC on a different publishing platform. The process is taking longer than originally thought, but we believe we’ll be back and kicking by September 20th the latest.
Apologies for the recent no-posting
Stay tuned!
Important notice to our readers
Dear Readers,
Recently Naama Chronicle has experienced a number of technical difficulties related to website maintenance, and this is what kept us from our regular posting schedule.
Since our efforts to fix these problems are taking too long, we decided to transfer Naama Chronicle to a different posting platform, which is rather radical, but certain-result decision. It is likely that the website will be offline for a number of days starting from Monday or Tuesday.
The “off air” period is not expected to last longer than 2 - 3 days, and therefore we think that by September 5 or 6 we’ll be back online, alive and kicking.
Our apologies for this inconvenience, but we’re doing everything in our power to ensure a smooth functioning and availability of our website.
Stay tuned!
Vadim, Odrek.
Ugandan forestry receives boost from top officials
Good news for the forestry sector in Uganda on both fronts - commercial and environmental - after the President and Vice President make their stance clear on the subject.
The Vice President urged tree-planting in Karamoja region
THE Vice-President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, has urged the people of Karamoja sub-region to plant trees to avoid desertification.
He noted that over-grazing was one of the causes of desertification.
Bukenya made the remarks during his two-week anti-poverty campaign (Prosperity-For-All) in the sub-region.
He visited Moroto, Kotido, Abim and Kaabong districts, where he launched an upland rice project on Tuesday.
The Vice-President donated five ox-ploughs and five sets of oxen to farmers’ groups.
He urged the beneficiaries to use the ox-ploughs to open up more land for farming.
Bukenya told Dodoth farmers that through the National Agricultural Advisory Services programme, President Yoweri Museveni had given Loleila sub-county sh56m this financial year.
He urged the coordinators of the project to use part of the money to buy more upland rice seeds for the farmers.
The Vice-President was accompanied by Karamoja affairs minister Aston Kajara and area MPs.
Very important and decisive opinion comes from the President of Uganda, when he rejects the plan to log the forest on Mount Elgon on the border with Kenya:
Mbale
President Yoweri Museveni has rejected a government’s plan to reduce forest cover on Mt. Elgon. He said the plan should be suspended until proper verification is done by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).
The President said the government should not compromise on the country’s forest cover that contributes to a healthy ecological system. The President was meeting a team from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in Mbale.
The team that was led by the Trade and Industry Minister Janat Mukwaya told the President that they wanted to cede some 7,500 hectares of forest land for human settlement on Mt. Elgon in Mbale District.
President Museveni, however, noted that he must be convinced that reducing forest cover will not affect the ecological system of the country. He warned government officials against succumbing to public pressure.
“We should tell our people that their livelihood and survival depends on these forests. The forests help in manufacturing the rain. We will not compromise on this. We can relocate people to other areas,” he said.
Mr Museveni said he does not accept “blackmail” from non-governmental organisations that all forests are important.
He said that before a forest is destroyed for any purpose, NEMA must present a logical and scientific explanation.
The publishing paper - The Monitor - claims that this decision is contradictory to the previous decision by the President to allow the reduction of Mabira forest for the purposes of sugar growing
This is a sharp contradiction by the President who on several occasions, has stated that he will not rest before part of Mabira Forest, Uganda’s biggest natural forest is given away to the Mehta Group for sugar growing.
The proposal to give away Mabira sparked massive protests in Kampala City that claimed lives of several people. Mr Museveni has in the past supported the cutting down of vast forests in Kalangala District by Bidco Ltd, to grow palm trees.
In their proposal, UWA officials said some areas in Mbale and Kapchorwa can be released for human settlement especially those with permanent homesteads.
The UWA officials said although in some areas the settlements went beyond the allocated land , people can be prevented from further encroachment. The UWA team suggested that some people can be allowed to plant trees to protect the environment and supplement their incomes. President Museveni told the team that the reason he declared Mt. Elgon and Mt. Rwenzori, national parks was because there was need to protect both animals and trees.
Therefore, he said, these areas which form the source of rivers and streams must be “jealously protected.”
But maybe, above all, it demonstrates that there are rational concerns behind these two decisions, and there is no place to compare between them and look for contradictions.
Uganda - Kisoro to benefit from $500,000 investment in organic coffee production
Great news for Kisoro district in particular and Ugandan coffee industry in general.
URTH Café, one of the leading coffee shops in the US, is to boost organic coffee production in Kisoro district with a $500,000 (about sh875m) investment.
The pilot project with Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) would see the investor buying coffee directly from farmers.
Shallom Berkman, the Urth Café proprietor, explained after a four-day guided tour that the programme would be handled by Mount Gorilla Coffee Estate Company, which is already working in the region.
Berkman, who has been piloting the programme for the last four years with selected farmers, informed the growers that the roll-out programme, aimed at benefiting more farmers targeted only those that produce high quality organic coffee.
“Farmers who pick red cherries have an assurance that their coffee would fetch them big premiums as opposed to those who pick green cherries,” said Berkman.
He said farmers who apply better farming practices would be rewarded with a 20% price increment per kilogramme. Currently, a kilo of good organic coffee sells for S$5 (about sh8,400).
He said a training and business centre would be set up in the area.
Henry Ngabirano, the head of UCDA, appealed to farmers to embrace the programme.
He told those with old coffee trees to stump and prune them for better yields.
The farmers, however, said low yields and lack of organic experts, deterred them from organic farming.
Urth Caffe is a Californian-based company was established in 1989, and it is America’s first exclusively organic coffee company that purchases, roasts and distributes organic coffee and teas. In addition, the company owns three cafes in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica
Nigeria food supply - the problem and its cause
Nigeria - the country with vast natural resources that could serve as a large base for commercial agricultural activities and turning it into completely self-sufficient on food supplies - imports $3 Billion worth of rice, wheat and fish.
When you think about Nigeria’s geographical location and land and water resources, the thought of importing rice, wheat and fish to this country is almost inconceivable.
Nigeria spends a staggering $3billion annually due to heavy importation of three major staples from abroad.
Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Abba Sayyadi Ruma, who revealed this yesterday in Lagos said the Federal Government spends the amount yearly on importation of rice, fish and wheat.
The Minister made the disclosure during the opening of the National Council on Water Resources (NCWR) and the launching of International Year of Sanitation for Nigeria held in Lagos.
While expressing concern on the colossal expenditure, he stated that the country cannot afford to continue to spend that much on importation of food while it has the potential to be self sustaining in those areas. He then called on the technical committee of the NCWR to come out with good initiatives that would save the country from food crisis.
According to Ruma, the country needs a new policy in the agricultural sector. He said that was why it has become necessary for the council to come up with a formula that would save the country from the lingering food scarcity. He said Nigeria has the capacity to produce five million metric tonnes of fish but could only achieve a dismal 500 metric tonnes annually.
Apart from poor resource management, here is another reason behind the stalemating agricultural development of not Nigeria alone, but of many other African countries: the lack of the desire on the part of the local commercial banks to participate in agricultural development, thus significantly limiting (or degrading to zero) the access to the sources of financing for medium and small- scale farmers
Nigerian Banks have shown no interest in the First Northern Agricultural Summit that begins today, Daily Trust can report.
Although all the commercial banks were contacted for roles in the summit, so far only the Unity Bank is supporting the Summit with N25 million.
Unity Bank is the only mega commercial bank in Nigeria with its headquarters in Abuja.
Top executives of the commercial banks were expected to seize the occasion to accentuate their agricultural finance exposures and new plans before government functionaries in the spirit of Public Private Partnership (PPP).
A statement from the Unity Bank indicated that it has been in the forefront of funding agriculture especially with its Agric Trust Model Fund which has been successfully implemented in Katsina and Kaduna States, adding that the bank was also involved in providing funds to large-scale mechanized farming with its intervention in the Shonga farm project in Kwara State.
However, just last week the First Bank in collaboration with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group organised a conference on food security in Abuja.
One of the organisers of the First Northern Agric Summit who does not want his name in print expressed dismay over banks’ reaction to the summit, saying Nigerian banks aren’t too keen on the agricultural sector.
“The banks have not signalled any interest yet,” he said.
The summit which is being jointly organized by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and Admiral Environmental Care Limited is scheduled to run from Monday 28th to Wednesday 30th July 2008 at the Arewa House, Kaduna.
Tree planting to become a trend in Uganda?
The talks of the need in commercial and community tree planting are nothing new in Uganda.
So far, no serious approach has been made by foreign or local business community, although the core understanding that this could be one of the major commercial industries in the country is there.
New Vision reports:
BENEFITS from the commercial forestry industry ave not been fully realised, Paul Jacovelli, the chief technical advisor of the Sawlog Production Grant Scheme has said, writes Winfred Kagwe.“This is because Uganda has not seen forestry as a major industry yet. People think it is all about small sawmills and charcoal but there is a need to have big companies,” he said at a stakeholders’ workshop at Hotel Africana in Kampala.Jacovelli said in other countries like Swazi1and, forestry is the biggest investment, accounting for 25% of the Gross Domestic Product, yet trees in Uganda grow three times faster.The Uganda Investment Authority’s executive director, Dr. Maggie Kigozi, urged investors in forestry to handle tree planting as any other business and not to expect grants from the Government.
One of the issues the stakeholders raised was the unclear policies used by the National Forestry Authority (NFA) to regulate the sector.
Here are some statistics about Ugandan forestry sector (source FAO)
As clearly seen from the numbers, the forested area is shrinking, since there is a lack of massive replanting that is desperately needed to restore used and depleted sources of wood.
Another indicator comes from the following table. When you look at the numbers of timber produced vs timber consumed, it clearly shows that consumption almost equals to consumption, which explains the disappearance of the forested areas in the country. On the most part, wood is consumed for fuel and furniture.
The good news is that the government of Uganda recognized the existence of the problem and initiated the program for small farmers to grow trees and thus making the first, very small steps to tackle the issue of disappearing forest resources. However, it will take a large-scale investment in commercial forestry to seriously address the problem.
Time for private investors to step in.
New investments to create 63,000 jobs in Uganda
The only way to set the country - any country - on the path of economical prosperity is through increasing investments and decreasing (or completely eliminating) the aid.
The latest statistics coming from the Ugandan Investment Authority are a reason for optimism for the economical future of the Pearl of Africa and another proof of success of the economic policies of the government.
ABOUT 63,389 new jobs are expected from investment projects licensed this financial year, the Uganda Investment Authority has said.
Last year, about 53,963 jobs were expected, meaning that the number grew this year by about 17%, said Dr. Maggie Kigozi, the head of the authority.
Addressing journalists at the Media Centre in Kampala where she released this year’s figures, Kigozi said the total value of investments was $1,984m (sh3.3 trillion). This is lower than the $2.2b (sh3.6 trillion) investments the year before.
She blamed the new figures on the post-election violence which rocked Kenya in the first half of the year, thereby crippling supplies of goods and services in the country.
This year, the areas which benefited from the investments were mainly energy, the financial services, real estate, transport and accommodation sectors.
Energy attracted the highest value of investment worth $685.7m, with 19 projects licensed.
The manufacturing sector, on the other hand, had the largest number of projects, with 148 of them licensed and valued at $500.5m.
In an attempt to attract even more investors, Kigozi said the authority would attend the North American convention in the USA later this year and market the northern part of the country to Ugandans in the Diaspora.
She said Ugandans abroad would also attend another investment conference in December in which opportunities in Uganda would be showcased.
Ugandans, Kigozi added, continued to be the major investors in terms of the number of projects. They put together 88 projects worth $896.4m. India followed with planned investments of $309.8m from 90 projects.
Kigozi listed the major challenges as insufficient energy, transport services and access to finance for domestic investment.
Uganda: brewery company to invest $50 Million
More good news coming from the Pearl of Africa - Uganda - the country with one of the healthiest and most successful economies on the continent
Parambot Breweries to invest $50 Million in expansion
PARAMBOT Breweries, the producers of Moonberg Lager and Rock Stout, is to inject $50m (sh80.5b) in the second phase of the investment.
“We have performed well in the first phase. In the second phase, which will be in late 2009, we are looking at doubling capacity,” the general manager, Jerry Rajwayi, said during an interview.
He said some of the funds would be borrowed and the rest got from the company’s resources.
Rajwayi said during the second phase, they would install a new bottling line, expand the brew house and fermentation tanks.
He said they also plan to automate the crating line. Rajwayi said they were operating with 18 tanks, which would increase to 32 during the second phase.
“We are producing one tank of beer per day. We hope to produce two tanks come second phase.”
He said the demand for beer in the region had increased.
That is a great news indeed. But when we searched for Parambot Breweries’ website (http://www.parambot.co.ug) we found out that it was hacked!
We hope that from $50 Million of investment, the company will spare a few bucks to improve their website’s security. After all, it is presenting their image and gives an idea how serious the company is taking it.
