Business round-up

Agric board to reward best coffees The Coffee Cup of Excellence competition and Awards that will be held on August 26, 2011 will for the third time award best coffees. The competition which is conducted in three stages, this year attracted 189 samples of coffee but 132 qualified for the international jury selection. The Deputy Director General Export and Market Operations at the National Agriculture Export Development Board (NAEB), Ndambe Nzaramba, said that for the last four months, coffee farmers have been preparing for the competition. He said that as a measure of ensuring transparency, an auditing firm is hired to handle the coffee coding. The Cup of Excellence program is owned by non-profit organisation Alliance for Coffee Excellence and is dedicated to exemplary coffee and farmers. Gov’t to boost trade through improved standards Government is hopeful that the promotion of standards and the quality of products will boost exports and local firms’ competitiveness. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Emmanuel Hategeka, said the country`s products meet international standards and quality gives confidence to compete internationally. He said that markets like confidence but fails where there is uncertainty or transparency. Hategeka added that as consumers increase, local industrialists and conformity assessment bodies should be fully equipped to compete for the market. He said that the problem is the attainment of demonstrable product quality demanded by authorities, as well as the major players in the market. Inflation soars to 7.14% The country`s inflation for July increased to 7.14 per cent, up from 5.82 per cent in June. This is attributed to the rise in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages which increased by 1.4 per cent. The National Institute of Rwanda (NISR) reports that the annual underlying inflation rate increased to 2.4 per cent up from 1.9 per cent. The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, John Rwangombwa, said that government took action in curbing inflation. Government wishes to contain inflation to single digits and boost economic growth to at least 7 per cent in the 2011/12 financial year. Rwangombwa said that the government took action by reducing fuel and sugar prices. MFIs post drop in assets As a result of upgrading some Microfinance institutions to bank status, the total assets belonging to Microfinance institutions fell by 6.3 per cent from Rwf42.9b to 40.2b between December 2010 and June 2011. The central bank said that Unguka IMF and CFE Agaseke were licensed as microfinance banking institutions, while CSS-Zigama upgraded to a cooperative bank. The move impacted on the assets of the MFI industry. Gross loans issued to the public by MFIs decreased from Rwf32.3b to Rwf30.5b while gross deposits slid from Rwf23b to Rwf21b. However, BNR reports that the MFIs capital adequacy improved as their liquidity ratio stands at 56 per cent compared to the minimum requirement of 30 per cent. Africa’s budget processes hit by poor financial management system Despite Africa’s efforts to modernise budget systems to achieve socio-economic reforms, the limited fundamental financial management systems tend to be crippling budget processes. The deficit in implementing national budgets and the weak law across African governments are undermining the effectiveness of reforms undertaken to promote transparency in budget processes. The Director General of National Budget in the Ministry of Finance, Elias Bayingana, said budget dependence on development partners also limits priority allocations in the budget. Bayingana said that it’s not possible to determine priorities that will help deliver services to the people. MTN Group profits up MTN Group posted a one per cent growth in revenues to the tune of SAR56.5m (Rwf4.6b) in the first six months of the year. This is attributed to strong growth in MTN’s South African and Iranian operations of 5.9 per cent and 12.1 per cent, respectively. The Group’s financial report for the second quarter of 2011 indicates that the results were offset by negative growth in Ghana and Syria but with no growth in Nigeria. MTN South Africa performed well increasing its subscriber base by 5.1 per cent to 19.8 million for the six months to June 2011. It also came as a result of growth in the prepaid segment which increased its subscriber base by five per cent to 16.2 million subscribers. This was also due MTN Zone Mahala offerings and strong promotional campaigns. Rwanda receives US$5.5m for regional integration Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) and the Ministry of East Africa Community (MINEAC) received financial support worth US$5.5m from TradeMark East Africa (TMEA). The fund is to facilitate trade and promote the country’s institutional capacity towards regional integration. US$3.8 million was given to RRA while MINEAC obtained US$1.7 million. The funds are part of an agreement between TMEA and the government that was signed in February this year. The CEO of TMEA, Frank Matsaert, promised to continue supporting the country`s integration in EAC. He said this will be done through reducing transport costs, speeding up border crossings, strengthening policymaking and implementing protocols, particularly the Common Market. Ends