RIG gets paid Rwf507 million insurance claims
 
SONARWA, Rwanda’s biggest insurer by both revenue and financial assets has made a remittance of Rwf507 million to the Rwanda Investment Group (RIG) according to company officials.

The claim was to pay for the extraction equipment and floating barge of the Rwanda Energy Company (REC), after it was recently destroyed. REC is a subsidiary of RIG which is executing the Methane gas project on Lake Kivu.

RIG has embarked on the Methane gas project in order to test the fired power plant which will be connected to the national grid to increase electricity supply.

"The Rwf 507 million claim which SONARWA paid was in line with the loss that was caused by damage to the platforms on which the extraction equipment was placed which caused the equipment to sink before installation was completed,” the Ag. Managing Director of SONARWA Olusegun Durojaiye said.

"Therefore liability attached because the damage occurred before erection was completed,” he added.

However when the extraction equipment was placed on the floating barge it sank 300 meters deep into the bottom of the Lake.

Olusegun said the company will always respond in times of a disaster and misfortunes for their numerous customers.  He said SONARWA paid a total of Rwf 4.5 billion as claims in 2009 a clear demonstration of the company’s commitment to honor its obligations to its customers.

Olusegun also revealed that the RIG’s claim is not the biggest claim ever paid by SONARWA.  In 2002 the company paid more than Rwf 1 billion to compensate UTEXRWA when the factory was burnt down by fire.
 
EA leads in regional integration 
 
The East African Community (EAC) is implementing regional integration agreements designed to eliminate tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers (NTB) promoting regional integration faster than other regions. 

The remarks come as EAC is preparing to launch a common market this year that will allow free movement of capital, labor and services within the region.

Speaking at the launch of a joint report on regional integration by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Union Commission (AU) and African Development Bank (AfDB) last week, a group of experts observed that regional integration achievements on the Continent are uneven.

In particular, Coalition for Dialogue in Africa (CoDA), a regional group that supports the AfDB’s drive for commercial and monetary integration in the continent’s sub-regions says that while progress in East Africa has been widely praised, there are  mixed results in West Africa.

"East Africa used to be lagging behind, but it moved much quicker towards integration than the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),” said Abdoulaye Bathily , CoDA’s coordinator.

According to Bathily, ECOWAS, which was once considered as a leading organization in terms of sub regional economic integration, has longed been bogged down by a series of civil wars during the past 20 years.

The report says EAC progress has also made in promoting investments and trade. "There is significant leveraging of regional programmes as well as development of regional infrastructure,” the report reads in part.
 
Gorilla visits increase by 12%

Mountain Gorilla

The number of tourists visiting the national parks to see Rwanda’s famous primates increased by 12 percent in the first quarter of 2010, according to the information from Rwanda Development Board (RDB) office of Tourism and Conservation.

Joel Rudasingwa, the Tourism Research and Statistics Officer at RDB-Tourism and Conservation said the increase can be attributed to the healing global financial crisis that affected the sector last year.

However, from July to September 2009 which is the high season, gorilla visits surpassed 56 people every day.
Official statistics from RDB indicate that in the first quarter of 2010 gorilla visits have generated Rwf1.2 billion with about 4,000 visitors.

Comparing to last year same period, Rwanda registered a 12 percent increment with this year’s target being 16,500 gorilla visitors.

With the gorillas being very rare species in the world, Rwanda boasts of almost 280 gorillas in total with Uganda and DR Congo having a good number of the primates.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), there are around 700 of the endangered species in the territorial boundaries of Rwanda, Congo and Uganda.

Records show that the Volcano and Virunga Mountains of Rwanda and Congo host about 380 gorillas while Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is a home of over 300 primates.

Tourism is Rwanda’s leading export earner ahead of tea and coffee. The sector contributes about 3.5 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and it is expected to account for 5.8 percent of the GDP by 2016.

BNR implements key reforms to ease access to credit

The National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) has succeeded in implementing key credit information reforms and systems that will ease access to credit, and boost the country’s ranking in the 2011 World Bank’s Doing Business Report.

The Central Bank says it has put in place a comprehensive legal framework that regulates the establishment and operation of credit information system.

The Credit Information System Law (CIS law) assigns the Central Bank, the role of licensing and supervising private credit reference bureaus.

Ends