Business round up

Rwanda`s exports increase by 26% It was reported this week that Rwanda’s exports rose by 26 percent in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009, boosted by increased cross-border trade that has also improved the country’s trade balance with neighboring countries. Statistics by the Central Bank indicate that cross-border transactions hit Rwf 40 billion between May 2009 and April 2010, dominated by DRC with a share of 63 percent.The Central Bank says that cross-border trade is becoming quite significant in Rwanda’s external trade activities. Rwanda’s exports in the first half of 2010 remained dominated by traditional export products such as coffee, tea and minerals which accounted for 64.2 percent of the country’s total export earnings. KCB posts Rwf 690 million operating loss Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Rwanda has reported a net operating loss of Rwf 690 million for the first half of this year for the period ending June 30. KCB, which is the latest entrant into Rwanda’s banking industry, says the loss was due to heavy start-up infrastructure investment including full branch network expansion and human resource recruitment. “The second year of operation is the year in which we will incur the biggest loss and the reason for that is that we now have all the bank’s infrastructure in place. In this second year of operation, we are incurring very high costs,” Maurice Toroitich the Managing Director of KCB Rwanda told Business Times on Tuesday. “KCB Rwanda expects to incur the highest loss this year but expects its revenue grow for the bank to become profitable,” he said. Revenue will grow from the first year of operation onwards so that by end of the second year the bank will break even. “Going into the third year and beyond we will be operating at a profit.” The bank says that despite the loss in net earnings, it has seen significant growth with total assets increasing by 60 percent to Rwf 25 billion compared to Rwf 16.1billion for the whole of last year. EAC seeks to hormonise regulation of MFIs The National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) hosted a regional meeting to discuss ways on how to align rules and regulations that govern the microfinance industry within the East African Community (EAC) countries. The move is part of the regional Monetary Affairs Committee mandate through which the EAC’s Central Bank Governors are tasked to enhance monetary and financial cooperation. Speaking during the launch of the two-day meeting the Governor of BNR, Francois Kanimba, said that apart from a functioning legal system, financial development requires a functioning financial system. This means that Rwanda will have to align its MFI law and regulations with other EAC countries. The MFI law in Rwanda caters for licensing requirements, corporate governance, performance and accounting standards, accountability and transparency, deposit protection as well as liquidation mechanism. Kanimba added that the workshop will harmonise regulatory tendencies. Participants are expected to discuss benefits and challenges with regard to harmonisation of regulation of microfinance, access to finance, microfinance policy, regulation and supervision, similarities and differences. Tigo, MTN partners with RwandAir for SMS flight schedulesRwandAir has partnered with MTN and TIGO, the two leading mobile operators to help travellers get information about flight schedules via mobile Short Message Services (SMS). The service which will help reduce queues at the carrier’s selling offices will also help its travellers to get instant auto response with accurate flight details after sending their queries. According to the company’s management, the service, which is already active in Rwanda on MTN and Tigo networks will be rolled out in phases to cover the entire East African networks and other networks on RwandAir destinations. RwandAir’s Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager, Michael Otieno explained that to access the flight schedules, you send a word: RwandAir (space) destination to either 123 on MTN or 7333 on Tigo and you wait for the automatic response. He also added that the moment this service is available in Rwanda on MTN and Tigo, the next phase of implementation will cover Burundi, Uganda and finally they will provide the service on Kenyan, South African and Tanzanian mobile networks. Commonwealth Finance Ministers to meet in Washington Finance ministers from Commonwealth countries across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, North America and the Pacific will meet in Washington DC early next month on the 8th October 2010 to map out strategies for continuing to deal with the impact of the global economic crisis. The meeting, which takes place during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, will be held in the IMF’s HQ1 building. Speaking ahead of the meeting, Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said that one of the issues that Ministers will discuss is the potential relationship between the Commonwealth and the G20. Ministers will also discuss ways of promoting environmentally sustainable growth, as well as addressing the challenges of small and vulnerable states in managing their debt. Ends