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The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) for the fourth time held its annual Business Excellence Awards ceremony aimed at recognising entrepreneurs and institutions that enhance both innovation and better service delivery.

According to RDB’s Chief Executive Officer John Gara, “the awards are in line with our continuation of honoring investors in the country and foreign ones.”

He noted that this year’s awards had three new entries including, Woman and young entrepreneur of the year as well as a district which performed better in doing business.

The guest of honor Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi noted that the government has a will to promote better service delivery and infrastructure development.

He added that as far as the awards are concerned entrepreneurs should put much effort into innovation since it facilitates the use of latest technology for instance.

“I’m happy that we are awarding entrepreneurs who strive hard to promote wealth creation and employments at the same time improve the welfare of their employees,” he pointed out.

List of the winners

 ICT sector:Large Company : Tigo (Winner) SMEs : Hoziana (Winner)

 General Manufacturing sector : BRALIRWA (Winner) SMEs : Soft Group (Winner)

 Agro-Processing : Ese Urwibutso (Winner) SMEs : Coproviba (Winner)

 Finacial Sector : Bank of Kigali (Winner) SMEs : COMICOKA (Winner)

 Mining sector : Wolfram (Winner) SMEs : ALICOMEC SARL (Winner)

 Tourism sector : Tourism Promotion Services Ltd- Serena Hotel (Winner) SMEs : RTUC (Winner)

 Real Estate : Real Contractors SMEs : Ujenge (Winner)

 Best Business Friendly District : Ruhango (Winner)

 Customer care Service : Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration

 Woman entrepreneur of the year : Mukarubega Zulfat

 Young entrepreneur of the year : Jean de Dieu

 SME of the year : COPROVIBA (Winner) Soft Group (1st Runner up)

 Exporter of the year : BRALIRWA (Winner) Ese Urwibutso (1st Runner up)

 Investor of the year : Banque Populaire du Rwanda (Winner) Nakumatt (1st Runner up).

President Paul Kagame has planted a tree at the compound of the new African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Each African country has been allocated a small piece of the land where heads of states are required to plant at least one tree as a symbol of their recognition at the union at the same time pass a strong message of environmental conservation.

This is the 18th time the president is attending the African Union summit, this year the heads of states’ gathering goes by the theme ‘investment promotion among African countries’.

The summit will be held in new premises, a gift from the Chinese government and is worth US$ 200million.

André Niyibizi has turned himself in to Ngororero police station after killing his mother Peruth Bwenge on Friday evening.

Eye witnesses disclosed that Niyibizi left his home pub at 8PM and went to her mother’s home. It is alleged that his mother refused to open the door for Niyibizi despite continuous knocking on the door.

Niyibizi became furious and forcefully broke down the door. He entered his mothers house and asked his mother to serve him food but she is alleged to have refused.

Niyibizi grabbed a dagger and killed her mother through piercing her severally on her chest.

The suspect and his mother are believed to have been earlier involved in disputes after Niyibizi’s mother allegedly used 100 roofing tiles belonging to him.

“I suspect he killed his mother because of the debt from the tiles which I believe wasn’t that much,” said one of the neighbours.

Residents said that Niyibizi often turns violent when under the influence of alcohol which earlier caused his wife to divorce him due to domestic fights.

Since 2004 IBUKA organization, an organization created by survivor’s of the 1994 Tutsi genocide, are planning to build three genocide memorial sites in Uganda to commemorate thousands of Tutsi victims that were washed up the river Nile.

Idelphonse Karanga in charge of Rwandan national committee for the fight against genocide told reporters that with the help of the Rwandan government, IBUKA and the RNC are working to open three different memorials on the shores of lake Victoria in Uganda.

The three districts chosen are Kasensero, Gigolo and Lambu, where over ten thousand bodies were discovered.

The memorial centers commence construction by the end of 2012. The sites will be a replica of Memorial structures of the original centers in Rwanda.

Beginning with the rooms of world history, where one is telling the history of the genocide and the other depicting the history of the genocide, as well as rooms such as the room which is dedicated to the thousands of innocent children whom perished during the genocide.

The United States of America special advisor for Great lakes and DR Congo Ambassador R. Barrie Walkley is in the country.

The envoy who arrived in the country on Friday evening, will meet with Rwandan government officials to discuss issues related to the situation in the Great Lakes Region, including Rwanda, Burundi, and the DR Congo.

He said that, his trip to Rwanda was his first one since he was named to that position by Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of State one month ago.

The envoy who also visited Kigali Genocide Memorial Site, said that people should be aware of the dangers of hatred, tribalism and divisionism in the society, calling for tolerance to each other.

He said this Saturday when he visited the Gisozi based Memorial site paying tribute to over 250,000 victims laid to rest at the site.

Ambassador R. Barrie Walkley, the United States Special Advisor for the Great Lakes and the DR Congo, has said people should learn how to be tolerant to each other to avoid bloodshed.

“It’s remarkably an emotional experience walking through the memorial centre. This was the worst tragedy to have ever happened to human kind,” he asserted.

“This brings tears to everyone who visits this centre and reminds the world that this shouldn’t happen again, not in Rwanda, not in any part of the world”.

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Information reaching Igihe.com suggest that the DR Congo based Rwandan dissident militia, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), has been hit by internal conflicts.

The conflicts followed the last week’s killing of the group’s senior official Theodomir Mugaragu. He was reportedly killed in misunderstandings that emerged recently.

Several reports suggest that Mai Mai have become major enemy to FDLR wanting them to get out of their land which has weakened the group.

Capt. Joseph Tuziyarmye, a former political commissar in the rebel ranks, noted that FDLR has lost the support of the local population they had.

Tuziyaramye also added that the group is short of ammunition and continuously loosing man power as local community also become against them and take them down individually.

It has reportedly said that almost every soldier is remaining with bullets for personal security not for war and they have lacked direct external support.

The returnees from South Kivu in the areas of Shabunda, Walungu and Hombo where they are said camping say that the offices of the UN Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) are far and also lacks communication links.

The FDLR, and other rebel groups stationed in the north and south Kivu, are mainly made up of genocidaires, who fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after the 1994 Genocide.

The ex-rebels are currently undergoing demobilisation and reintegration training at Mutobo demobilisation centre in Musanze.

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The Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi has unveiled a Rwf 66 bn grant from President Paul Kagame to farther development to Nyaruguru District.

The grant is a 3 year special budget to develop the District in different sector of infrastructure, agriculture and fighting malnutrition among others.

The premier made the announcement during the tour of the District where he also joined residents of Cyahinda sector in the monthly community work Umuganda.

This month’s community work focused on sensitizing the population to fight malnutrition.

Prime Minister begun the campaign against malnutrition by giving young children milk and participating in the preparation of Kitchen garden where he planted vegetables like carrots and greens among others.

He also presented to residents in Nyaruguru 44 cows that were collectively contributed by permanent secretaries of different ministries.

Addressing residents in that area, Habumuremyi praised the permanent secretaries for setting good examples of giving out cows in line with the one cow per family program.

The prime minister reminded Nyaruguru District residents that Rwanda is a country that has a significantly difficult history and therefore their hard work is required in the ongoing quest for sustainable development.

The prime minister’s visit continues and is expected to continue touring various developmental activities in Nyaruguru this Sunday.

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The race for the African Union Commission top job has intensified and voting is slated Sunday.

As the African leaders also go for their 18th AU summit, South African president Jacob Zuma is lobbying for his Home affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for chairmanship of the AU commission.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is expected to compete with among others the Jean Ping, the incumbent chairman.

Zuma has met Congo Brazzaville President Denis Sassou-Nguesso and was due to meet the presidents of Chad and Guinea-Conakry.

Zuma also met Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on the sidelines of the AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Francophone countries are said to have resisted Dlamini-Zuma’s bid and are the main backers of Ping.

In the related development, Rwandan President Paul Kagame is due to address the African Union Summit on the subject of aid effectiveness at a time when the rich countries are faced with a debt crisis.

President Kagame also participated in the ceremony to inaugurate the newly built African Union Conference Centre (AUCC).

The ceremony was also attended by Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, President of Equatorial Guinea and current Chairperson of the African Union, Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission and Jia Qinglin, Chairman of the National Committee of the People’s Political Consultative Conference of China, as well as representatives of the international community.

The ceremony was marked by the unveiling of the Kwame Nkrumah monument, the laying of the first stone of the AU memorial for Human Rights, and the handing over of the keys of the New conference Center by the Chinese authorities to the Chairperson of the AU.The Conference Center was a donation from China.

The new 113 meter-high block will be the venue for the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit that kicks off this Sunday.

The AU memorial for Human Rights that reads in part; “For all the victims of human rights abuses in Africa, including those of the slave trade and colonialism and particularly the Genocide in Rwanda, (1994)”, was unveiled by Presidents Kagame, Yayi Boni of Benin and Jacob Zuma of South Africa.

President Kagame also attended the 26th meeting of NEPAD’s Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC) chaired by Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister and current Chairman of the HSGOC.

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