Business

MTN Rwanda has until recently enjoyed unchallenged monopoly for at least 22 years. Its party, it seems, is increasingly attracting fewer revellers. Operating a dull and highly inefficient service, the majority South African-owned telecom is feeling the heat from rival Indian-owned Airtel. In 1998, with the country only attempting to…

A mining sector lobby group is asking government to impose a stringent regulatory framework that will help improve conditions of its members. The Rwanda Extractives Workers Union (REWU) says more than 80 percent of people working in the mining sector have no contracts with their employers. According to the latest…

The months-long closure of national parks and continued travel restrictions due to COVID-19 has disrupted a critical revenue source for great ape conservation: sustainable tourism. Countries which rely on tourism as a significant source of their GDP must continue to place biodiversity principles at the heart of recovery efforts, and…

Tidjane Thiam, the renowned French-Ivorian banking titan, has been appointed by government of Rwanda as board chair of agency charged with mobilizing much-needed investment cash. Thiam resigned as CEO of Credit Suisse in February after a damaging scandal in which he is said to have authorised massive spying program on…

The World Bank will set up a new platform in Rwanda to protect foreign investors amid concerns that when they get here, their businesses face various threats. The Banks is scheduled to establish what has been called as ‘Systemic Investment Response Mechanism (SIRM)’ within the next three years. The new…

Nearly 50 percent of the government’s emergency economic recovery fund set up to cushion companies from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been spent. Figures released Friday by Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente show that Rwf 44.3billion of the Rwf 100b fund, has been spent. That is more than 44.3%…

Following the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, the new government let small groups of displaced and returnees to settle around the Gishwati forest in current Rubavu district, Western Rwanda. By 1999, a total of 10,184 families comprising of 42, 913 persons were settled. They found the forest terribly destroyed, and…

By end of 2020, Rwanda’s total debt will grow to a whooping 67 percent of the country’s gross domestic product or GDP, the International Monetary Fund said Monday. In End-of-Mission statement following virtual meetings with Rwanda officials, the IMF team says after months of a severe battering as a result…

Following an outcry from the public, the proposed fares rise will be suspended, Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority, has announced. Earlier, in response to sustained complaints, mostly on social media, RURA had responded that the fare rises had been “carefully considered”, apparently indicating that the decision would stand. It now seems…

A new report by the National Institute of Statistics (NISR) shows that all jobs lost when the COVID-19 emerged, have returned – and actually more jobs have been created. Cabinet imposed a total lockdown of the country on March 15 to control spread of the virus. Over the months, the…

NASA has chosen Nokia to build a 4G network on the moon as part of the space agency’s Artemis programme, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence there. The Finnish company will build the technology which will be integrated into NASA’s lunar landers and used for remote control, as…

A group of eight men are in custody in Nyanza district following discovery of coltan in their homes which officials say was illegally mined. The arrests were made on October 14 in Murende village, Kirambi cell, Nyagisozi sector. Among those arrested also includes a 16 year-old boy identified as Bikorimana…

At a major wholesale trading center located in eastern Rwanda, wholesalers pay less tax than they should, by scheming with buyers. The payment receipts that the wholesalers give to traders, under-state the actual amount paid. The tax avoidance scheme has been taking place for a long time without the authorities…

Auctions are everywhere in today’s economy. They determine how Google sells ads, what price consumers end up paying for electricity, and the way governments sell off the public airwaves to telecom companies and broadcasters. For helping make auctions run more efficiently, two Americans on Monday won the Nobel prize for…

Cabinet on Monday endorsed a regulatory framework for mass growing of cannabis as police figures show several thousand people have been arrested for dealing and using the narcotic. Details in the approved document are yet to be made public, but the new changes bring Rwanda into a very lucrative industry.…

There are more than 3,000 cargo trucks bound for Rwanda and others regions currently stuck at Uganda-Kenya border as of Wednesday. It is the latest in a series of crisis that have hit the Kenya-Uganda border entry points in less than two months. The new trouble is because Kenya has…

Rwanda loses and wastes 40% of total food production each year, at the same time as 19% of the population doesn’t have enough to eat, says a World Bank report. The “Food Smart Country Diagnostic” report released last week looked at a selection of three crops which are widely consumed…

Nearly half of the total annual figure of $88.6bn is accounted for by the export of commodities such as gold, diamonds and platinum, the report found. Africa is losing nearly $89bn a year in illicit financial flows such as tax evasion and theft, amounting to more than it receives in…

Global airlines called on Tuesday for airport COVID-19 tests for all departing international passengers to replace the quarantines they blame for exacerbating the travel slump. Rapid and affordable antigen tests that can be administered by non-medical staff are expected to become available in “coming weeks” and should be rolled out…

Engineers in Britain have found that one village’s broadband was being put off by a powerful signal emitted by an old TV set owned by one resident in the community. The mystery of why an entire village lost its broadband every morning at 7am was solved when engineers discovered an…

Rwandan traders in the border region with DR Congo have asked government to help them recover nearly $20,000 from Congolese counterparts. Traders operating from a major border market in Rubavu district informed visiting Trade and Industry Minister Soraya Hakuziyaremye that when Rwanda closed its border, stopping Congolese from coming due…

By the end of last year, any given day was party time. And when it came to weekends, the temperatures even went higher. Concerts, live shows in bars and festivals kept revellers on their feet from year in, year out. Then suddenly, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Though the first case…

Tanzania has lifted a ban disallowing Kenyan airlines into the country effective immediately, a ban which would have placed RwandAir at an advantage to enjoy the Tanzanian market if maintained. This was after Kenya added the East African country to the list of countries whose citizens were exempted from the…

RwandAir is set to reap big in Tanzania as it fills the vacuum left by Kenya’s airlines which were banned from flying into that country. The airline, in a post on its website, announced that it will be operating three flights to Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro via Nairobi, Kenya.…

Government on Friday unveiled the long-awaited vision of the capital Kigali that the country should have in 2050 – modifying the one first adopted more than 10 years ago. At a less eventful function in Kigali presided over by Infrastructure Minister Claver Gatete, the Kigali Master Plan 2050 was released.…

Trucks from Kenya with good headed to Rwanda and on to eastern Congo are stuck at the Uganda border as drivers protest new cost for COVID-19 test. At the same time, truck drivers using the Busia border, one of two major Uganda-Kenya entry points, are decrying extortion by Kenyan Police.…

A fast-track scheme put in place by the U.S government allows companies to work quickly and produce a vaccine for COVID-19, likely before American elections in November, in exchange for protection against any consequences after. An amendment to US law, which was updated in April and only becoming public, stipulates…

The Ghanaian government on Monday officially commissioned and handed over the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to the African Union in the Ghanaian capital Accra. The handover ceremony was attended by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat and AfCFTA Secretary-General…

The immigration and emigration directorate announced Thursday that Rwandan passport holders have less than a year to use them. Passports obtained before June 27, 2019, will no longer be valid after June 28 next year. Instead Rwandan travellers falling in this time bracket will be expected to show the East…

It seems, finally, the technology Kigalians have been hearing about since early last year is here, though quite later than had been anticipated. Nearly 20,000 Motos operating from Kigali, with effect from August 15, will not decide how much their passengers pay. The back-and-forth bargaining between the two sides, that…