Low technical capacity hampers access to finance –officials

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Emmanuel Hategeka this week said that lack of technical capacity to develop viable business proposals is seen as one of the major challenges to access finances.
He made the call during a meeting with development partners and urged stakeholders to intervene with the aim of human resource development and provide specific firm level capacity building for competitiveness.

He said that "Interventions by stakeholders targeted to private sector development should aim to improve business environment with a view to reducing the cost of doing business.”

Bralirwa IPO: Equal treatment for EAC investors

The Chairman of the Rwanda Capital Markets Privatisation, Vincent Munyeshyaka, said that investors both local and those from the region who would like to buy shares in Bralirwa during the Initial Public Offering (IPO) slated next month will be treated equally.

This implies that investors from all the other four countries making up the Bloc will buy shares at the same cost price Rwandans will during the IPO launch.    

"We have a very clear allotment policy and by the (EAC) Common Market Protocol that was signed this year, we shall have to consider the EAC investors as local investors,” Munyeshyaka said.

The committee is responsible for the privatisation of government parastatals through the stock exchange.
Subject to the Capital Markets Advisory Council (CMAC) approval, the listing will represent 25 percent of the government’s equity stake in Rwanda’s largest brewery and soft drinks maker.

PSF pushes for more business reforms

It was reported that limited access to long term financing, high risk perception of the country and absence of a bankruptcy law are major obstacles to doing business by the private sector.

The Chairman of Private Sector Federation (PSF), Robert Bayigamba, in the annual development partner’s meeting said that; "There are still a number of issues; risk perception Rwanda is still perceived a higher risk country (abroad); we need to work on that at the national level to reduce that rank to be able to get long term resources.”
The Chairman said the private sector cannot easily access international financing schemes out there due to the high perceived risks.

"We should work together to change the perception of the risk of doing business in Rwanda,” he said.

85 % of commercial cases solved

The Vice President of the Commercial High Court, Benoit Gatete said Commercial courts have so far cleared 7,000 of the 8,877 cases it received from May to September.
Up to 3,333 cases were backlog cases while 5,544 are new cases handled by the commercial courts in the same period.

He said that "All the backlog cases were cleared from the period before the commercial courts started operating. Now we are dealing with new cases.”

The official pointed out that "simple” cases are handled in not more than 3 months while complex cases take up to 8 months.

Rwandatel joins BPR’s ‘mobile banking’ scheme

Rwandatel announced it had joined BPR’s Mobile Banking service through a partnership deal. This will therefore give Rwandatel subscribers access to make money transactions with out necessarily going to banks. BPR recently came to an agreement with Rwandatel so that the telecom company can enable its clients access their accounts through their (Rwandatel) service. The development is the first of its kind in the country.

BPR’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Herman Klaassen, said that "We have so far registered about 30,000 users and 50,000 transactions per week, ever since we launched the service six weeks ago.” 

He added that the bank is planning to launch a bulky payment service by the end of every three month, to allow institutions pay their employees using the service.

RDB roots for formal business closure

Rwanda Development Board (RDB) intends to roll out a sensitisation campaign for the business community and the legal society, aimed at increasing awareness to encourage formal business closure by applying the existing insolvency law.

John Gara ,the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RDB, told The New Times that this will improve Rwanda’s doing business ranking in the World Bank’s annual Doing Business (DB) Report.

He said that "Rwanda has consistently done badly (in the closing business indicator).  When many of our businesses collapse, they do not do it through the (formal) system – This gives an impression that we do not have a system which works for the dissolution of companies.”

This year, while Rwanda yet again took the lead, globally, in facilitating the business community to acquire construction permits, getting credit and trading across borders, it lagged behind in the closing business indicator.  

Ecobank installs new banking software

Ecobank Rwanda installed new banking software, FLEXCUBE, which will allow its customers to use mobile and internet banking services, and enhance service delivery by offering faster transactions.

The new system, replaces the Superbank application that the Bank has been using since it acquired the then Bank of Commerce Development and Industry (BCDI) in 2007.    

Ecobank’s Managing Director, Daniel Sackey, said that the old system had limitations in terms of providing timely information about clients’ transactions.

Western Union, MTN Group partner in Mobile Money transfer service

MTN Group and Western Union, a global payment service provider announced a commercial agreement to introduce international mobile firm remittance services in the 21 countries where MTN operates.

According to a statement from the MTN Group in South Africa, once introduced, MTN subscribers will be able to send and receive Western Union Money Transfer transactions using their MTN MobileMoney accounts.

The system will first become operational in Uganda.

"In addition, MobileMoney users in certain countries will be able to send Western Union Money Transfer transactions directly from their mobile phones for payout at one of Western Union’s 386,000 Agent locations in 200 countries and territories around the world,” the statement from MTN Group in South Africa reads in part.

AfDB pledges credit lines for local banks

The African Development Bank (AfDB) promised to strengthen Rwanda’s banking sector by funding credit lines for small and medium sized enterprises. The assistance supports the AfDB’s objective of private sector growth.
Bobby Pitman, the Vice President for Infrastructure, private sector and regional integration, said AfDB is negotiating with different local banks.
"We have engaged in dialogue with several banks on how the credit line will help them and how big it will positively impact the community and contribute to private sector growth,” Pitman said.                       
Pitman said by providing additional funding for private sector operations, it will help and expand the sector where small and medium sized enterprises have a significant role to play and are often key drivers of economic growth, development and employment creation.

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