Business Week - Archives

KAMPALA, UGANDA - Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) have decried the slow pace on the harmonisation of the East African Community (EAC) Common Market protocol which became operational July 1, 2010. A statement issued by the EAC publicist, Mr Richard Owora, said members of the Assembly had... Read more »

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - A financial expert has advised the Tanzania Government to lower or drop altogether the withholding tax in a bid to attract more investments. Speaking to finance and legal professionals in Dar es Salaam last week, an international tax expert, Jeremy Cape from SNR Denton International ... Read more »

Kampala, Uganda - The Electoral Commission has announced that it requires about Ushs220b ($110m) to conduct the 2011elections in Uganda. The Electoral Commission (EC) announced that the presidential and parliamentary elections will be carried out on February 18, 2011. The Commission Chairman, Mr, ... Read more »

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - The dry spell experienced in the northern and central parts of Tanzania has drastically reduced the quality and quantity of number of cattle supplied at Pugu main cattle auction market in Dar es Salaam city. The most hit areas are Shinyanga, Mwanza, Morogoro and Singida region... Read more »

KIGALI, RWANDA - Ethiopian Airlines, one of the most successful airlines in Africa, recently marked 35 years of service to Kigali. The airline launched its maiden flight to the Rwandan capital on April 4, 1975, according to the Area Manager Rwanda Mr. Bruk Endeshaw. He said Ethiopian Airlines now operates 12 w... Read more »

KIGALI, RWANDA - Mega commercial building projects are forcing commercial banks in Rwanda to opt for external lines of credit to satisfy the high demand for credit as part of implementation of the Kigali City Master Plan. Because of high demand for credit, local as well regional banks operating in... Read more »

NAIROBI, KENYA - Women farmers in Sub-Saharan are set to benefit from an $8m partnership with Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). An announcement made last week in Nairobi, revealed that the partnership is will increase the effort by AGRA's to... Read more »

KIGALI, RWANDA -Sudan has been urged to curb its large external debt with respect to Southern Sudan's referendum scheduled for January next year. The call was made during a technical workshop jointly organised by the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Sudan last week. ... Read more »

Kampala, Uganda -- Only weeks after staging a call rate revolution by cutting the tariff across all networks on local calls, Warid Telecom has now entered a partnership with Yu Network in Kenya to offer preferential call rates to subscribers of the two telecom companies. Under the arrangement which takes effec... Read more »

KAMPALA, UGANDA: The five member states of the East African Community (EAC) countries that are among the 186 countries that are set to benefit from the $49.3bn funding package that has been provided by the Word Bank. Public Information Assistant at the World Bank Country Office in Uganda Sheila Gashishiri told... Read more »

KIGALI, RWANDA - Rwanda is taking further the fight against corruption with creation of high-level Anti-Corruption Advisory Councils. The National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council and District Anti-Corruption Council are high-level organs, which share information on corruption. The Na... Read more »

LUSAKA, ZAMBIA - The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) regional economy will remain vulnerable to external shocks as long as the economies are not structurally transformed, an expert has cautioned. Mr Sindiso Ngwenya, the COMESA Secretary General, says, member states should revisit the st... Read more »

Dar es Salaam - The European Investment Bank has agreed to provide a USD 135 million loan to co-finance a new 667km high voltage transmission line being built by TANESCO between Iringa and Shinyanga in Tanzania. The agreement was signed in Dar es Salaam by Ramadhani M. Khijjah, Permanent Secretary of the Mini... Read more »

Kampala, Uganda - Power distributors UMEME plan to reducepower theft to 28% by 2011. This strategy will lower the operational costs leading to improvement in efficiency of power services. The General Manager Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at UMEME, Mr Sam Zimbe says that this will result in decrease of gene... Read more »

KAMPALA, UGANDA - The World Bank has committed $70m to support the integration efforts of the East African stock exchanges. This was revealed in a press communiqué issued after the 17th East African Securities Exchanges Association (EASEA) meeting held in Kampala recently. The money was given to support... Read more »

MBEYA, TANZANIA - Plans are underway to transform the Mbeya Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) into a University of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The progress will mean that MIST will be the first ICT University in Tanzania and the second in the East African region after Rwanda's ... Read more »

KAMPALA, UGANDA - In 2010 Ugandan businesses benefited from $144m in credit guarantee from the Africa Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) which enabled the businesses to finance their projects. ATI Uganda opened its office in 2009 and has since impacted on the Ugandan insurance market with an increase in the industr... Read more »

Kampala, Uganda - Bharti Airtel has announced that starting next year; they will roll out mobile money transfers across the five East African countries. Airtel who recently acquired Zain Africa said the initiative, when approved by the Bank of Uganda (bou) and corresponding central banks will ease cross borde... Read more »

Kampala, Uganda - Big manufacturing companies and some corporate organizations in Uganda and the world over are among major polluters of the environment leading to climate change, a consultant with the German Development Service has said. Dr. Christoph Zipfel indicated that some companies pollute unknowingly w... Read more »

DESPITE the economic potential of tourism in Uganda's national parks and game reserves, many of the rural communities that surround the parks lack the capacity and resources to benefit from tourism. The result seen in most of the areas surrounding parks, are impoverished communities that are limited to resource extractive economic activit... Read more »

KAMPALA, UGANDA - The World Bank has committed $70m to support the integration efforts of the East African stock exchanges. This was revealed in a press communiqué issued after the 17th East African Securities Exchanges Association (EASEA) meeting held in Kampala recently. The money was given to support... Read more »

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Tanzania headline inflation rate for November has gone up by 5.5% owning to increment of almost all items on the national consumer price index. It was 4.2 % in October. The main culprit for the rise has been the food basket. Only a few items were safe from inflation namely recreation ... Read more »

KAMPALA, UGANDA. As the year nears to a close there are reduced trading volumes at the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) and market researchers say that it might reduce further. The trading volume last week was about Ushs661m with most of the activity coming on the last day of trading. Market reports from vario... Read more »

The region is waking up to some good initiatives to crown the year. Groups of high level government officials responsible for industrialization and trade, the East African Community (EAC) secretariat, development partners, and the private sector met in Dar es Salaam for a two-day EAC-UNIDO workshop last week. The workshop on 'EAC-UNIDO industrial upgrad... Read more »

Editor--As a concerned citizen and aspiring Professional Accountant, I’m writing this letter with concern to the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Rwanda (ICPAR). In June-July 2009 there was a lot of pressure and tension in the institute governing council while qualifying firms and members to ... Read more »

Editor--It's not fair that the public transport authorities should fold their hands while bus companies fleece their customers of their hard earned cash in the name of holiday spirit. Buses carrying passengers that used to charge Ush15000 to Mbarara now charge Ush20000, and for the case of Kalita bus serv... Read more »