Author: b_igi_adm1n

Jean Bosco Tugirabega narrowly survived death after his wife hit him on the head with a small hoe (locally known as ifuni).

The incident happened at Ruhuha cell,Mugano in Ngororero District.

Uwimana Julienne hit her husband after the two failed to settle a dispute where Tugirabega accused his wife of adultery.

However, IGIHE reporter who found Tugirabega at the hospital,noticed that he had no medical insurance and was only provided with basic first aid and advised to find money to get extra treatment.

Later IGIHE went to Tugirabega’s home where local authorities and residents had gathered saying they were going to sell Tugirabegas land to raise funds for medical treatment.

Uwimana told IGIHE that fights in their home are common and it was not the first time that they had engaged in fights.

She added that although she admitted that this case of infidelity occurred, she has always been incited by the husband leading into quarrels and fights.

“My clothes have been burnt before, He has also poured away the food I prepared, I have endured frequent insults. He claims that am sleeping with other men yet its not true” Uwimana narrated.

Tugirabega also told IGIHE that this is the third time he has been hurt by his own wife saying that the source of the fights his adulterous wife.

Asked whether he had any evidence that his wife was involved in any extramarital affair, Tugirabega said that , “ I have never caught her but am aware of her extra marital affairs, even neighbours are aware.”

In Liberia, Journalists will not be arrested anymore for defaming and insulting the public, thus giving them greater freedom to operate.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, has signed (Saturday) the Table Mountain Declaration which calls for repeal of criminal defamation and “insult” laws journalists are usually charged with.

The Table Mountain Declaration is an international initiative being championed by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the World Editors Forum, the African Editors Forum and Liberia’s media advocacy group, President Union of Liberia.

The statement seeks to halt the continuous detention of journalists and closure of media houses on charges of defamation by governments for “insulting” authorities.

President Sirleaf is the second African leader after Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou to sign the Declaration since its adoption at the World Newspaper Congress in Cape Town, South Africa in 2007.

The ceremony which took place in the office of the President at the Foreign Ministry in the capital Monrovia, was attended by the president of the World Association of Newspapers, Xavier Vidal-Folch, among other members of the international community.

Prior to signing the declaration, President Sirleaf reiterated her commitment to advancing freedom of expression and free press not just in Liberia but the entire African Continent, noting that these attributes were the foundation of democracy.

She said the fact that Liberia was not among the 27 African countries where 229 journalists were imprisoned in 2007 also demonstrates her government’s commitment to free expression and free press.

She said setting freedom of speech and free press in Africa is one of her over-arching goals, as evidenced by the passage by her of the Freedom of Information Act in 2010 and the Access to Free Press Act in 2011.

Just a few days after agreeing in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia to resume peace talks South Sudan has announced (Saturday) it has cancelled face-to-face peace talks with the northern neighbor Sudan.

South Sudan government accuses Khartoum of launching a new air raid on its territory.

However, Sudan has denied bombing its southern neighbour, saying it had only targeted Darfuri rebels inside its own territory.

“We were left with no choice but to suspend our direct bilateral talks with Sudan,” the spokesman for Juba’s delegation at the talks in Addis Ababa, Atif Kiir, said.

“You cannot sit with them to negotiate when they are bombing our territory,” he added.

“The only negotiations that will happen now will happen through the panel,” he said, referring to an African Union mediation panel conducting the talks in the Ethiopian capital.

“There was bombing yesterday morning at a place called Rubaker,” in northern Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan’s military spokesman Philip Aguer told Press, adding that “this might have implications because maybe that is the intention of Sudan to bomb us and to stop talking.”

Aguer said eight bombs were dropped by Sudanese army Antonov planes.
“Two civilians were wounded — a man and a woman. They were sleeping in their houses in the villages of Wuer Kil and Wuer Puech”, he said.

“Last time they wanted to break off talks in Addis Ababa, they bombed us … that was on March 26” at a military base in oil-producing Unity state, he added.

“SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) didn’t violate South Sudanese territory,” Khartoum’s official SUNA news agency quoted one of Sudan’s negotiators to the African Union-led talks, Omar Dahab, as saying.

“What happened is the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels tried to attack Sudan by coming through South Sudanese territory and SAF responded to them, but inside Sudan,” he said.

Dahab added that his team “is ready to continue direct negotiations with South Sudan’s delegation.”

A new round of talks is due to begin Sunday at AU headquarters, a week after Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir exchanged a symbolic handshake at a summit of the bloc.

Spokesman Kiir said there was “no reflection” of the mood set by the meeting of the two presidents, adding: “We are doing our best.”

South Sudanese Communications Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin commented, “There are people who don’t want the talks within the Khartoum regime — that’s why they are bombing us.”

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council has urged Khartoum and Juba to settle their differences on oil and border demarcation before an August 2 deadline set by the United Nations.

The Eastern Africa region would experience a severe deficit of maize and rice in the next few years because of recurring droughts and marketing constraints, the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) has warned.

While deficit in the production of rice could rise to 2.84 million tonnes in 2020, the deficit of maize, the country’s main staple food, would reach a staggering 7.76 million tonnes in eight years’ time.

EAGC said in a statement that Tanzania has a strong comparative advantage for production and export of maize and rice to feed the region.

This, the organisation said, was especially made more apparent over the last three years and especially in 2011 when Kenya faced a food crisis due to severe drought to hit EA and the Horn of Africa.

The peak of the crisis not only witnessed the sharp rise of food prices in the region ‘’to unprecedented levels’’ but also an export ban on cereals by the Tanzania government which EAGC claimed “denied producers a great opportunity to access more lucrative prices”.

The Council, which is organising the two-day event in collaboration with the Arusha-based Selian Agricultural Research Institute (Sari), said Tanzania can feed the rest of EA if it utilised its great land potentia.

“At the regional level other partner states in EAC do not have the natural resource endowment and comparative advantage that Tanzania has particularly with regard to agricultural land,” it added.

The Rwanda Defence Force will inaugurate on Monday 23 July a new military College named Rwanda Defence Force Command and Staff College.

The event will take place at Nyakinama, Musanze district at the former campus of Rwanda Military Academy.

The military college that will teach senior officers from the rank of Major to Colonel comes at a time when RDF has been sending its officers to attend Senior Command and Staff Courses in the region and abroad, at a very high cost.

At the end of May this year, a UK defence experts’s team validated the RDF Senior Command and Staff College curriculum.

Lt. Col Jeremy Sharpe from UK Defence Academy, Dr. Andrew Stewert from Kings College London, Commander Chris Taylor, and Aaron Clipps, a librarian expressed their satisfaction that all requirements were in place for the College to commence immediately.

The College has been accredited to National University of Rwanda to offer a Masters degree to qualified officers, with the signing of an MOU between NUR and RDF on 18thJune this year.

RDF Senior Command and Staff College is starting with 45 senior officers that will attend the one year course.

The Ministry of Education through Rwanda Education Board (REB) has organised an initiative referred to as “Rwanda Reads” to develop a culture of reading in Rwanda.

The event will be launched at the Kigali Institute Education conference Hall on Thursday, 19/07/2012; starting at 8:00 am.

The objective of Rwanda Reads initiative is to dismantle literacy barriers and develop a thriving and sustainable culture of reading.

The initiative will utilize a variety of strategies, including public awareness campaigns, improved literacy instruction, and increased availability of reading materials, all ages of the Rwandan population.

Rwanda Reads is an initiative that will enable Rwandans to achieve our collective vision for the future of our country. We must all be empowered to contribute to the development of our country as described in Vision2020.

But achieving this goal cannot happen by reading a book here and a website there. We need, all of us, to develop the habit of reading every day for life-long learning and pleasure

The Rwanda central bank (BNR) in the partnership with IMF and IGC is preparing a Regional Central Bank Governors conference to discuss monetary frame work.

The conference is scheduled for July 19, 2012 at Kigali Serena Hotel. On the top of discussion will be price stability within the region.

In the previous consecutive press conference, The Governor of Rwanda Central Bank Ambassador Claver Gatete announced that Rwanda’s Economy is still much stable in the region.

Rwanda was presented as the country of lowest inflation on average of 8.3% rate while other countries in the region have a superior average.
The press asked whether these countries economy will not end up affecting Rwanda’s economy.

For this question Amb. Claver Gatete said that, they accepted to collaborate because of the effort these countries put in decreasing their inflation rate.

He gave examples from Uganda which brought its inflation rate from 30% to 17%, Burundi which dropped it to 22% from 26% and Kenya which dropped it to 10% from 18% and so on.

About worries from Euro zone troubles, the Rwanda Central Bank Governor said that the Euro Zone is not the only one market.

He added that Rwanda is expanding its market in the African Region and even in the Asia and ensured that the monetary policy committee in its survey showed evidence of enough capital in Rwandan Banks.

But he accepted that as Rwanda has an open economy, what affect other countries may end up affecting Rwanda’s economy. For that the conference will take measures to overcome challenges and threats from outside countries.

During the meeting, Regional Central Bank Governors will have an opportunity to share experiences from Latin America to make regional monetary policy stable.

Economic crisis started in 2008 in Western Countries. With Arab Revolution, economic situation becomes worse with the increase of Fuel prices. Nowadays Euro zone which is the donor for the most of African countries is in economic crisis, for that, Regional countries have to get united to overcome threats from Western countries.

BCR today becomes a part of a regional financial conglomerate thereby gaining access to the markets within the East African community and beyond.

This has been made possible through an 80% equity buy out from Actis, of the Bank’s shareholding, by a consortium comprising I&M Bank – a Kenyan based Bank, and 2 European Developmental Financial Institutions – DEG and Proparco.

Actis has held 80% of BCR’s shareholding since 2004, when it acquired the shareholding from the Government of Rwanda. Since then, the Bank has experienced tremendous growth. BCR currently has a network of 15 branches and a staff compliment of over 250.

Over the years, BCR has built a strong reputation of reliability, solidity and innovation that has enabled it to develop quality and profitable operations. The Bank’s total assets aggregate RWF 92.9 billion (approx. KES 12.4 billion; USD 61.9 million), as at December 31st 2011.

The consortium of Purchasers is led by I & M which possesses a rich heritage and history in the banking sector.The Bank was established in 1974 as a community financial institution that has since grown into a full-fledged commercial bank with presence in 3 countries.

The I&M Bank Group comprises I&M Bank Limited in Kenya, I&M Bank (T) Limited in Tanzania, Bank One Limited in Mauritius, and now through this acquisition of BCR Limited in Rwanda.

With a work force of over 860, balance sheet size of KES 108 billion (approx. USD 1.27 billion) and profit before tax of KES 4.95 billion (approx. USD 58.3 million) it is one of the strongest and best managed banks in Kenya.

In Kenya the Bank has a network of 19 branches covering the four major financial centres and access to approx. 4,000 ATMs across the country through the Kenswitch network. With a fast growing customer base, I&M has grown to be a market leader in its domestic market, and was recently ranked by the 2011 Banking Survey as the 6th best overall bank of the 43 banks in the country.

DEG, member of KfW Bankengruppe, is one of the largest European development finance institutions for long-term project financing. For 50 years, DEG has been financing and structuring the investments of private companies in developing and transition countries.

DEG invests in profitable projects that contribute to sustainable development in all sectors of the economy, from agriculture to infrastructure and manufacturing to services with special emphasis on exported oriented and employment generating projects which are environment friendly.

DEG also focuses on investments in the financial sector in order to facilitate reliable access to capital. To date, DEG has worked together with more than 1,700 companies with financing commitments of more than EUR 13 Billion and boasts of 457 staff spread over 13 regional offices and supported by 60 KfW agencies worldwide.

PROPARCO (or Proparco) (Société de Promotion pour la Cooperation économique) is the Investment and Promotions company for Economic Cooperation. Created in 1977, Proparco is a Development Financial Institution, partly held by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and private shareholders from the North and South.

Proparco’s mission is to foster private investment in emerging and developing countries which targets growth, sustainable development and reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Proparco has a team of 150 people, 10 regional offices and is supported by 50 AFD Group agencies worldwide.

Hon.John Rwangombwa, Rwanda’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said “This acquisition contributes to Rwanda’s continued path towards creating a strong, efficient and inclusive financial sector. The Government’s aim is to encourage all industry players to offer diversified services and products which tailor to all segments of Rwandan society.

In addition, we believe that the partnership with two reputable Development Financial Institutions – DEG and PROPARCO – will highly contribute to mobilizing long term financing for the economy.”

The new Board takes over under the continued leadership of Mr William Irwin, who has been the chairman of BCR since 2009. “We look forward to working with our new shareholders to grow BCR to its full potential.

BCR is well known in Rwanda and now being part of a Regional Banking Group will make it an even bigger player in the region enabling it to offer exclusive products to facilitate regional trade.”

Sanjeev Anand BCR’s Managing Director who has been at the helm of the Bank since 2009, further expressed “We are excited about this milestone in the history of BCR. Being a part of a larger, regional banking entity opens up so many more opportunities both for BCR and Rwanda as a whole.

In addition, having two reputable development finance institutions as major shareholders, will certainly improve the Bank’s visibility in the international markets. We are looking forward to working closely with I&M Bank and to being able to serve our customers much better and more conveniently on a local and regional front.”

I&M Bank Group prides itself and has been recognised for its passion to introduce innovative products and services that enhance customer convenience and their overall banking experience. I&M Bank was the first bank in East and Central Africa to be licenced by VISA for E-Commerce acquiring.

Likewise, I&M was the first bank to introduce a prepaid card that can be loaded using mobile payment systems. The I&M Group also operates in the insurance industry through GA Insurance Company.

“This is certainly a step in the right direction” says Mr Sarit S. Raja Shah, the Executive Director of I&M Bank “We are guided by our customers’ expansion in the region, and this acquisition is no different.

It further strengthens the position of I&M as a truly regional player able to offer seamless one – stop solutions to our customers who transact within the region.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the National Bank of Rwanda for their support and guidance during this acquisition, and for welcoming us as investors into Rwanda. We look forward to find synergies within the Group that will contribute further to Rwanda’s economic growth”.

This operation illustrates I&M’s strong partnership with Development Finance Institutions. Laureen-Astrid Kouassi, Investment Officer in PROPARCO’s Banking and Capital Markets Department confirmed her institution’s commitment to the I&M Group:

“Proparco is proud to support its long dated partner in the expansion of its activities in Rwanda whose banking sector offers some significant opportunities for the I&M Group.

BCR enjoys a strong positioning in its domestic market; its sound recent financial and operating performances have moreover paved the way for a sustainable growth. The successful completion of this acquisition hence further strengthens I&M’s position as a key player in the EAC banking sector”.

“We are proud to support I&M Bank in this transaction, a partner distinguished by exceptional regional knowledge and a proven track record.

As one of the bank’s focus activities is the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises, the expansion to Rwanda will enable the transfer of I&M Bank’s expertise and range of banking solutions in this field, thus supporting the expansion of private enterprises structures and creating the basis for sustainable growth in Rwanda” said Peter Bereschka, Investment Manager at DEG.

The trade between Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda has steadily been on the rise, especially supported by the East African Community Agreement. As Mr Arun S Mathur, the Chief Executive Officer of I&M Bank expressed “The acquisition will give the customers of BCR and I&M regional banking solutions and facilitate their expansion within the EAC.

The participation by PROPARCO & DEG in this acquisition also further highlights the confidence the DFIs have in I&M and in BCR.

I&M currently enjoys several credit lines, and we look forward to strengthening BCR’s products and service offerings and support more businesses within Rwanda. Our relation with BCR will certainly support our vision to be ‘…the first choice where customers want to do business’.”

MTN employees today joined multitudes of people and organisations around the world to observe Mandela Day in celebration of Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday.

“We are marking the day by doing good for humanity in tribute to an icon whose fight for freedom and contribution to the ushering in of democracy in South Africa inspired the birth of MTN, now a global African brand that is using the empowering force of mobile telephony to transform people’s lives,” Yvonne Mubiligi MTN Foundation Manager in Rwanda said.

MTN employees around the world will use Mandela Day to celebrate the achievements they made during 21 Days of Y’ello Care, an annual MTN staff volunteer programme that takes places from the 1st to 21st of June.

This year’s programme focused on education, and saw thousands of employees across MTN’s vast geographic footprint in Africa and the Middle East undertake activities to improve the quality of education and schooling infrastructure.

They re-furbished classrooms and libraries, provided computer centres, technical training, bursaries, career guidance, books and school lessons on a variety of subjects.

In Rwanda MTN employees raised money to cover the needs of over 300 underprivileged children studying between Primary One and Primary 9 levels of education.

“We donated books in 4 provinces in Rwanda and in Kigali City, to be used in the school libraries to improve the reading culture of Rwandan children. We also carried out renovation in various schools and this is done with the aim of improving the standards of education.

By end of July we shall be providing 300 free school bags to the children benefiting from 21 Days of Y’ello Care,” Mubiligi said.

In a message to more than 24 252 employees, MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer, Sifiso Dabengwa, paid tribute to MTN volunteers for acting out their selfless deeds in keeping with Mandela’s legacy of doing good for humanity.

“For us at MTN, everyday is a Mandela Day. As a corporate organisation and as a people, we live by Mandela’s example through what our employees do for their communities, as well as through the work of MTN Foundations, which help us to effectively balance our commercial imperatives and the social needs of the communities in which we do business,” said Dabengwa.

“We observe Mandela Day by celebrating the achievements we made during the 2012 edition of 21 Days of Y’ello Care – now in its 6th year and still growing in terms of its beneficiary reach and staff participation.

In true Mandela you sacrificed your time and invested your energies in commendable efforts of ‘service to one’s fellow human’ in an all-out endeavor to improve access to, and the quality of, education for our communities,” he added.

To pay homage to Madiba, MTN will be presenting him with a book featuring pledges to serve humanity from our customers and MTN staff sent via www.mtn.com.

The book will also showcase some of the highlights, in word and pictures, of the activities MTN employees undertook during the 21 Days of Y’ello Care programme in 2012.