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Police FC thrashed Marine FC in a tight game that was dominated by the Police side.

The match was a competition for quarter finals qualifications where Marine failed to resisit a thorough beating on an indisputable score of 4-1.

Completely dominated in the first half-time of the game, Marine FC was apparently suffocated by the avalanche of three consecutive goals scored by Rivaldo and Kagere Meddy.

In the second half time the Marine team, after pouring water on them while in break, tried their level best and scored their sole goal just to retain their tears for consolation.

Much as they were revived by the oxygen taken in break time, they could not do otherwise better, as Police FC strangled them by 4-1 after Rivaldo added another 4th goal.

When asked to comment on the victory, Goran Kopunovich said he was confident of his boys and that he was expecting even more than what he got as they played on home pitch.

He went on to say that there’s no bad surprise to be envisaged ahead of the race. “We are ready for AS Kigali and we will perform.

The race to the finals is tough but our chance to the cup is not far from our hands”. In all, Police FC scored 9 goals against 2 for Marine FC.

China’s state owned media announcement on Monday that the communist power will inject US$43 billion to recapitalise the International Monetary Fund.

This decision cemented China’s image as a responsible country and conformed to national interests, experts said.

“The announcement came against the backdrop of global economic uncertainties and mounting financial market turmoil.

“It aims to narrow the IMF’s funding gap and let it play a better role in safeguarding global economic and financial stability,” said He Fan, assistant director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

China’s contribution was part of a pledge made by G20 finance ministers in April to increase the financial firepower of the IMF by over US$430 billion in order to shield the world economy from the European financial crisis.

Analysts said China’s decision to boost resources for the IMF offers China a good way to use its rich foreign exchange reserves.

“China’s capital commitment is not free aid. It is actually an investment and a useful foreign reserve management tool,” the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, said on Tuesday in a statement on its website.

The nation’s foreign exchange reserves stood at US$3,04 trillion by the end of March, the largest in the world.

“It’s the IMF borrowing from China on the basis of guaranteeing safe and reasonable returns,” the statement said.

Ding Zhijie, an economics professor at the University of International Business and Economics, said such pledges can be regarded as a preventative measure or a credit line for the IMF, and the fund may only use a small amount of the pledged money.

For instance, “China promised to buy up to US$50 billion of IMF bills when the fund expanded in 2009, but has so far only purchased US$5,7 billion worth,” Ding said.

As a global intergovernmental organisation, the IMF takes necessary measures to ensure the capital safety of its member countries.

“China’s holdings of IMF bills are safe and with normal interest payments so far,” according to the PBOC statement.

“China’s capital increase to the IMF is line with China’s interests and China’s international status and international responsibility,” the statement said.

Experts and the PBOC called on the IMF to implement its 2010 quota and governance reform package and increase developing countries’ voting power in the financial organisation.

In 2010, the IMF’s Board of Governors agreed to shift over 6 percent of the IMF quota to emerging or under-represented countries by October this year.

Although the new French government promised to end France’s post-colonial Françafrique policy, diplomatic relations between France and Rwanda are still a major concern as France remains non commital on the appointement of an ambassador to Rwanda.

Rwanda is a major political player in the Great Lakes Region.

The new Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius (in photo) said in May, “With Africa we should have a partnership of equal to equal.”

Fabius was responding to querries on how he intended to break with Françafrique, a policy that has become a byword for dubious business and political connections between the former colonial power and Francophone African leaders.

He added that, “We will deal with our African friends in a transparent manner in the hope of having a partnership for development.”

Fabius noted that the continent can expect “considerable growth” in both its population and its economic, “which implies extraordinary potential.”

The Rwanda National Police on Wednesday staged check point along the Kigali-Musanze road to search for drug distributors.

The operation focused on public transport vehicles, business as well as private cars.

During the three hour long operation no narcotics or any illict stuff was siezed.
However, Superintendent Emmanuel Ngondo, the director of anti-narcotics unit noted that the operations were necessary.

“We perform these exercises randomly or when we have information regarding narcotics being transported which we get from the public,” Superintendent Ngondo said.

Narcotic smugglers and distributors have become smarter and this has required Police to quickly adapt. Using sniffer dogs police are sure to flash out the smartest of drug smugglers.

Supply of drugs in Kigali city is believed to come from Rubavu and Kirehe districts in Western and Eastern provinces respectively.

“That is why our operations focus on the Kigali- Ngoma and Kigali-Rubavu highways,” Superintendent Ngondo added.

During the 16 day Police week activities, such operations were conducted along these routes where 22 narcotics dealers were arrested and more than 20 Kilograms of cannabis confiscated.

Imbuto Foundation has today hosted its 17 Youth Forum Series at Serena Hotel Kigali. This year’s Youth Forum, “Navigating Pathways: Lifeline to Success”, focuses on career guidance.

The forums form part of the Youth Empowerment and Mentorship Program (YEMP) which continuously engage, educate, and empower Rwandan youth through various activities.

One of the key activities of YEMP is to empower youth to set clear and high goals through the annual Youth Forum Series.

Career Guidance is the first to address the issues most youth face prior to attending university. The forum consisted of 300 participants some of which are high school graduates in their gap year and first year university students.

The forum aimed at equipping the participants with the necessary information and tools to make better and more informed educational and career decisions as they continue on to university.

Imbuto Foundation believes it is imperative for youth to make informed educational and career decisions for their next level of study especially since many youth depend on scholarships and often scholarship restrictions make it difficult to reverse decisions.

Among the student participants were guests such as First Lady Jeannette Kagame, Minister of Education Hon. Dr. Vincent Biruta, One UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative Mr. Opia Kumah, including representatives from government and university institutions.

In her address to the students Mrs. Jeannette Kagame said, “Career, as you all know, refers to a profession or occupation that one chooses as one’s life calling. Choosing a career is a delicate issue and often a dilemma for young people.”

The Minister if Education, Hon. Dr Vincent Biruta discussed in his address how important internships are for the youth, as skills are not only obtained at university but also through TVET. He encouraged youth the make use of any internship opportunities.

Topics that were covered during the forum were career options, self-discovery, and career paths.

Minister of Youth officially came to close the forum and told the students that they should embrace change and visualize the end, they should plan accordingly.

Focused on addressing the major causes of poor customer service, Rwanda Development Board has launched a two day training of trainers in customer care.

According to a press release from RDB, the training is part of a series of initiatives of the Na Yombi campaign, which was launched by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) geared towards improving the quality of services across all sectors in the country.

Apollo Munanura, RDB’s Head of Department for Human Capital and Institutional Development noted;

“While RDB has been training and providing orientation to various groups about customer care, this new training is designed to equip trainers with knowledge and skills to address the root causes of poor or indifferent customer service, specifically in timeliness, communication and problem solving.”

This training explores foundations of good customer service, critical pillars of customer care including timeliness, problem solving and communication.

Research conducted in 2010 to establish the level of satisfaction of users of services provided in 7 sectors, both public and private by the Boston-based consulting firm, On The Frontier Group, revealed that customer expectations with regard to these three pillars of customer care were minimally or in some instances never met.

The 40 trainers who are being trained are drawn from 18 organizations including the Private Sector Federation, Rwanda Tourism University College, School of Finance and Banking, Rwanda Association of Customer Care Professionals, Mount Kenya University, Akilah Institute, Adventist University, Rwanda Utility and Regulatory Authority, among others.

Yves Ngenzi, the manager of the Customer Care Unit at the Rwanda Development Board said, “trainers will be resourceful to their institutions in all customer care matters by conducting formal and regular training of customer facing staff.”

“They will also mentor selected employees to transfer the right attitude and skills in customer care.”

RDB will continue to upgrade the skills of the trainers by providing them with other tools to evaluate the level of customer satisfaction in their respective institutions.

It will also endeavor encourage them to provide their training and technical assistance to organizations which might seek to benefit from their services.

At the end of the training, trainers are expected to preparetraining and skills transfer plan to ensure that the knowledge they have acquired is transmitted to as many of their colleagues as possible and that best practices in customer care are disseminated as widely as possible.