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Museveni meets MTN Group executives asks them to support economy growth

By
Isaiah Mwebaze
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President Museveni meeting former MTN Group CEO and MTN-Uganda Board Chairman, Charles Mbire.

President Yoweri Museveni has met top executives of MTN Group led by Rob Shuter and MTN Uganda Chairman Charles Mbire on the sidelines of the Africa Now Summit at Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo in Kampala.

In mid-February 2019, Eagle Online reported the South Africa based company was in preparations to send a delegation to Uganda to meet top government officials, following the recent deportation of MTN Uganda CEO Wim Vanhelleputte for allegedly compromising Uganda’s national security.

A source told Eagle Online then that the deportation of Vanhelleputte created fear among shareholders of MTN Group that their business in Uganda could be closed especially after several warnings by President Yoweri Museveni about the companies activities which included among others under declaration of taxes.

“The South African delegation is in contact with MTN Uganda Chairman Charles Mbiire who is expected to lead them in meeting government officials,” a source said then. On Wednesday it was Mbire who led the South Africans to meet Museveni.

“To ensure business continuity, MTN Uganda appointed Gordian Kyomukama, the Chief Technology Officer, as Acting Chief Executive.

Vanhelleputte’s deportation came a month after the arrest and deportation of three other senior employees of the telecommunications giant. These were; the chief marketing officer, Mr Olivier Prentout, the mobile money general manager Ms Elsa Mussolini and Annie Tabura who was the general manager for sales and distribution at MTN Uganda.

There has been a continuing investigation against more MTN staff for allegedly compromising National Security using their positions at the company but also it was said the company was under declaring its revenues to evade taxes.

Following the deportation of the staff in January, Shuter would met Museveni in Davos, Switzerland during the World Economic Forum. Sources say the brief discussion focused on an array of issues such as the company listing the Group’s affiliate on the Uganda Securities Exchange but as well as discussion on the deported MTN workers.

Sources said Shuter approached Museveni in Davos to see how they could resolve the on-going scandal involving the deportation of staff of the company. The same issues were discussed today, according to a source and that a road map is to be drawn to resolve them.

Recently the Uganda Communications Communication asked MTN Uganda for US $58 million for renewal of its licence, even though Museveni wanted the company to pay over US $100 million. He also warned MTN against giving bribes to some people whom he said are in his system.

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Kizito Luwagga joins Kazakhstan top tier side

By
Isaiah Mwebaze
-
William Luwagga-Kizito

Uganda Cranes talented right-winger William Kizito Luwagga has moved from Romanian side Politehnica Lasi to join Kazakhstan giants FC Shakhter Karagandy on a season long loan.

The midfielder broke the news through his official Facebook account with the caption: “A new opportunity🙏🏿. Another chance💪🏿. A new beginning 🦶🏿.”

Karagandy becomes his seventh club he has featured for in Europe after Covilha, Leixoes, Feirense, Rio Ave, CMS Lasi and Bate Borisov.

Shakhter is one of the giant clubs in Kazakhstan and have won the Kazakhstan Premier League twice in 2011 and 2012, the Kazakhstan Cup and Kazakhstan Super Cup in 2013.

Kizito Luwagga has not been called up for Uganda Cranes’ last Afcon qualifier against Tanzania Taifa Stars scheduled for 24th March 2019 due to lack of playing time.

Luwagga becomes the fourth Ugandan to play in Kazakhstan after Ex Uganda Cranes skipper Andy Mwesigwa, Savio Nsereko and Crested Cranes forward Fazila Ikwaput.

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Ugandan accuses Rwanda of imposing trade embargo on its goods

By
Isaiah Mwebaze
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Minister Sam Kutesa

Rwanda has imposed a trade embargo on the bilateral trade with Uganda, according to the latest statement issued on Wednesday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Rwanda has introduced an export permit system for those that intend to export goods to Uganda. This is a technical and non-tariff barrier to trade, to which there has been no successful applicant. In effect this is a trade embargo on bilateral trade with Uganda,” Sam K. Kutesa, Uganda’s minister of Foreign Affairs.

According to Minister Kutesa, Rwanda is not allowing entry of Ugandan-made goods into its territory even as it has allowed light Uganda registered vehicles into the country.

“What is happening on the ground however, is that export of Ugandan goods to Rwanda have been prohibited by Rwanda authorities? The same authorities are only allowing crossing into Rwanda those trucks carrying transit goods destine to Rwanda or transiting into Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of Congo or other places,” reads the minister statement.

According to minister Kutesa, Rwanda still continues to block goods from Rwanda and Rwanda registered trucks to cross over into Uganda. The blockage also includes its citizens who want to enter Uganda for various reasons.

Yesterday while addressing delegates at the Africa Now Summit in Kampala, Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto, blasted the Kigali regime for closing its borders to Ugandan goods, saying it was anti-the spirit of the East African Community (EAC) to which Rwanda applied and joined in 2007, having observed its benefits such as easy movement of goods and people across borders.

The EAC Common Market Protocol requires free movement of goods and persons across all the borders in the bloc that comprise Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. By closing its borders to Ugandan goods and preventing its citizens from travelling into Uganda, Rwanda is violating this framework.

Rwanda on February 28, closed its borders on flimsy reasons such as arrest and torture of Rwandans living in Uganda but later on would allege that Uganda was hosting Rwandan dissidents planning to destabilise its government. Uganda has vehemently distanced itself from the accusations, saying Uganda welcomes also citizens of the world as long as they are law abiding.

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SK Mbuga’s wife denied bail as she is sent to Luzira prison

By
Geoffery Serugo
-
Chebet

The Anti-Corruption Court has dismissed bail application filed by Angela Chebet the wife of Sulaiman Kabangala aka SK Mbuga who is currently incarcerated in Sweden over money laundering and obtaining money by false pretense.

Vivian was arrested in late February from the couple’s home in Muyenga and charged with two counts of money laundering and obtaining money by false pretense.

Led by her lawyer Emmanuel Walusimbi, Chebet had applied for bail arguing that she is a law abiding citizen and will report to court whenever she is required to report there.

Appearing before Magistrate, Pamela Lamunu, Chebet’s bail application was rejected for lack of substantial sureties and a record of not complying to bail conditions.

Prosecution avers that Chebet fraudulently transferred money amounting to 53 million Kronor (about Shs23 billion) from a company account she was running with her 71-year old Swedish boyfriend, Sten Heinsoo to her Barclays account in Uganda.

Chebet was arrested in Sweden, prosecuted and was temporarily released on bail. She was banned from traveling outside that country. However she fled and came back to Uganda.

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Makerere don storms final step of WHO Africa Innovation Challenge

By
Our Reporter
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Dr. Misaki Wayengera

Dr. Misaki Wayengera, a researcher attached to the Department of Pathology at Makerere University’s College of Health Sciences, has reached the final race in the WHO Africa Innovation Challenge after impressing judges with his ground-breaking invention that diagnoses hemorrhagic fevers.

After futile efforts to attract funding from the Ugandan government, in 2013, Dr. Wayengera finally won a US$100,000 grant from Grand Challenges Canada to create Pan-Filovirus Rapid Diagnostic Test, a paper-strip test, similar to the one used in pregnancy but used in detecting Ebola and Marburg viruses.

The award-winning researcher, who holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Human Surgery from Makerere University, a master’s degree in Bioentrepreneurship and a Ph.D. degree in Pathogenomics from Toronto, Canada – had been working on Ebola since it first broke out in Gulu, Masindi, and Mbarara districts of Uganda in 2000.

So, by the time of inventing the Pan-Filovirus Rapid Diagnostic Test, Dr. Misaki Wayengera was way north of the 10,000 Hour Rule.

To commercialize his project, Misaki told thisisafrica.me in 2015 that he needed about US$100 million to build a facility that will house state-of-the-art laboratories.

Other finalists in WHO Africa Innovation Challenge

In the final race of WHO Africa Innovation Challenge, Misaki Wayengera qualified alongside two Ugandans: Denis Oguzu Lee for his startup National Ambulance Service and Wasswa William for PapES.

The National Ambulance Service is a mobile, on-demand, hyper-local ambulance, police and fire service call and dispatch emergency system for Android and iOS.

The innovation aggregates various types of private and public emergency services and allows the nearest required service to be dispatched immediately to the patient at the fastest possible time.

PapES has been developed for automated diagnosis and classification of cervical cancer from pap-smear images.

The tool also takes into consideration the patient’s cervical cancer risk factors.

A cytopathologist analyses the patient’s cervical cancer risk factors and the tool generates a result on the possibility of cervical cancer.

Must read: Rwanda opens $4.5 million coding school

Subsequently, the cytopathologist can upload the pap-smear to segment the image using the developed techniques and extract cell features.

In all, 30 finalists were picked from 2471 applications.

These will then proceed to showcase their projects on the opening day of the second WHO Africa Health Forum in Praia, Cape Verde on March 26.

The best teams will then be connected to business angels and investors to support them in their next phase of growth.

WHO regional director for Africa Dr. Matshidiso Moeti said the extent of the response to the challenge affirms the enthusiasm among young people to make a difference and contribute to the health-care system on the continent.

“Health innovators have found a new home at WHO, where their innovative ideas will be supported in partnership with our network of stakeholders,” she said.

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Bayern Munich v Liverpool: Return Leg Preview

By
Agencies
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Bayerrn - Liverpool

Bayern and Liverpool are deadlocked at 0-0 going into a game “the whole world will be watching” at the Allianz Arena as the Reds look to emulate last season’s run to the final.

Klopp’s latest clash with Bayern is a tough one, with Liverpool having been held to a goalless draw in the first leg at Anfield, but by shutting out Bayern, they know an away goal means Bayern would then have to score twice to progress to the last eight.

Liverpool’s record away from home in Europe is far from impressive this season, having lost all three of their group stage away games, their only goal in their three away Champions League games this season was a James Milner penalty against PSG.

Virgil van Dijk returns from suspension which means Fabinho will move back to his favotite midfield position.

Key Stats

68 per cent of teams to have drawn 0-0 away from home in the first leg of a Champions League knockout tie have ended up progressing to the next round (21 out of 31).

Bayern Munich have won only one of their eight matches in European competition against Liverpool (D5 L2), that came in the Cup Winners’ Cup back in November 1971 with two goals from Gerd Muller and one from Uli Hoeness in a 3-1 win in Munich.

Liverpool and Bayern Munich’s only previous encounter in the European Cup/Champions League before this season came in the 1980/81 semis. Liverpool progressed on away goals (1-1 on aggregate) – they would go on to beat Real Madrid in the final (1-0).

Bayern Munich have only failed to score once in their last 26 Champions League home games, that was against Sevilla in last season’s quarter-finals (0-0).

Liverpool have lost their last four away games in the Champions League (3 goals for, 9 against) – they have never lost five in a row in European competition.

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski has scored 23 goals in his last 22 Champions League games at the Allianz Arena, including nine in 10 knockout games.

Possible line-ups:

Bayern: Neuer; Rafinha, Sule, Hummels, Alaba; Thiago, Martínez, James Rodríguez; Gnabry, Lewandowski, Ribéry

Out: Kimmich (suspended), Müller (suspended), Robben (calf), Tolisso (fitness)

Doubtful: Coman (hamstring)

Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Henderson; Salah, Firmino, Mané

Out: Keïta (unspecified), Oxlade-Chamberlain (hamstring), Gomez (ankle)

Doubtful: Alexander-Arnold (muscular), Lovren (hamstring), Milner (hamstring)

Misses next game if booked: Robertson

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Dfcu bank’s major shareholder moots exit

By
Geoffery Serugo
-
Dfcu Bank headquarters in Kampala.

Dfcu bank’s major shareholder is said to be unhappy with the bank’s business and is interested in detaching from the bank, Eagle Online can say.

This follows that the bank has of recent made only Shs60 billion in profit despite making an investment of about Three Trillion Shillings over the recent years.

However, as the shareholders are unhappy about the performance, two big clients are reported to have left the bank to Stanbic bank and accordingly, this has left the bank unsure about the remaining clients.

In January 2017 Dfcu bank acquired Crane Bank Limited at Sh200 billions paid in installments from Shs500 billion bad book of the latter. Some shareholder were not happy with the transaction that has put the bank in bad image.

According to highly placed sources at the bank, the Shs1.8 billion Dfcu Financial Centre built at Namanve is one of the projects that have caused the bank financial loss. The building continues to eat into the bank’s finances in terms of security, power and other costs even though the bank is not gaining from it.

The source further said most top managers who resigned took away big clients of the bank and linked them to Dfcu’s competitors.

In July 2018, UK’s CDC Group indicated its desire to exit the investment.

The shareholding

Arisse BV -58.7 per cent

CDC Capital Partners Ltd.

National Social Security Fund Uganda

The Rock Creek Group LP-

Old Mutual Investment Group (Pty) Ltd.

Russell Investment Management LLC

Uganda Bank of Staff Retirement Benefit Scheme

Vanderbilt University Foundation

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

Jubilee Investment Co. Ltd.

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Mwenda denies he was paid by Rwandan gov’t for ‘classified operation’

By
Isaiah Mwebaze
-
Veteran scribe, Andrew Mujuni Mwenda.

Veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda has denied allegations that he was paid US$200,000 by the Rwandan government for running adverts in his independent Magazine in 2008.

A document circulating on social media indicates that the money was paid on Mwenda’s personal account in Barclay Bank in London, information which he says is fake as the money should have been sent to the company’s account.

“Can’t you see it’s a fake? How can one pay an ad in a newspaper as a classified “operation”? And how can GoR pay for ads on the basis of a letter not an invoice? And to a personal bank account instead of a company account? He responded when asked about the purported transaction.

The journalist who has a close relationship with both Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame wondered how a magazine that launched in December 2007 could be able to get an advert worth that huge amount of money by March 2008.

“If anyone wanted to forge a document they could have forged a headed paper for the independent or at best an invoice! And they would have stamped the document,” he said.

However the Rwandan government advertises in his magazine and that he said cannot be a secret, more so that the publication is not a charity. He added the government of Ugandan advertises in the Independent six or seven times more than that of Rwanda.

The document started circulating yesterday two days after Mwenda wrote about the current Uganda-Rwanda border stand-off and Rwanda’s accusations that Uganda was hosting enemies of the Kigali regime.

In the article Mwenda said Uganda has not listened to Rwanda’s concerns, which has not gone well with a section of Ugandans with some responding to him in equal measure.

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Vipers crash out of Uganda Cup after quarter-final loss

By
Our Reporter
-
Vipers SC

The Uganda Cup quarter-final games have been concluded and the list of the semi-finalists has been confirmed.

2016 winners Vipers SC have been knocked out by Big League side Proline FC in a game played at the StarTimes stadium in Lugogo on Tuesday afternoon.

Nurudin Bunjo opened the scoring for for Proline before Tadeo Lwanga leveled for the Venoms forcing the game into extra-time. Substitute Ibrahim Bonyo headed in the winner from a well delivered cross from Hakim Kiwanuka with six minutes from time.

Proline won the game 2-1 and progressed to the semi-finals.

Express FC, Bright Stars, Kyetume FC and Proline FC are now the four remaining clubs to battle for Uganda’s most prestigious knockout competition.

The date for the semifinal draw will be communicated as well as when the games will be played.

The winning club of the Uganda Cup will walk away with Shs40 million, runners up Shs20 million, semi-finalists Shs10 million while the quarter finalists Shs5 million.

Buganda region will host the Uganda Cup final this year but the ground will be communicated in due course.

The winner of the competition represents Uganda in the CAF Confederation Cup as per the rules of the competition. KCCA FC are the defending champions.

Express FC and KCCA FC are the teams that have won the Uganda Cup most, ten times each.

Quarterfinal results

Express 1-0 BUL

Nebbi Central 0-1 Bright Stars

Kyetume 0 (4)-0 (1) Wakiso Giants

Proline 2-1 Vipers SC (AET)

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Accept your identity, UN official urges Africans

By
Isaiah Mwebaze
-
Rosa Malango

The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Uganda, Rosa Malango, has urged to accept and love their identity if they develop themselves in the competitive world.

“We need Africans to work together to come up with their own solutions,” she said there is need to tackle issues like; barriers to trade, how everyone can work together as well as how African people can contribute to the sustainable development goals.

She added: “I think the critical thing is to understand where you come from, we need to do research on why the things we have done in the past haven’t worked. I think this is the right time for emerging leaders to come up with new solutions & move forward with them.”

Ms Malango was speaking at the Africa Now Summit co-chaired by President Museveni alongside other Heads of State and key business leaders on the continent at Commonwealth Resort hotel in Munyonyo.

Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) Executive Director, Allen Kagina, said most countries in Africa have prioritised infrastructure because it’s the backbone of development.

“I’m here to learn. The integration of Africa is something Africa requires and needs right now; I’m here to be part of what will be history.” She said every single sector requires investment but infrastructure is a priority.

I don’t think every age group should be pointing fingers at each other, we are all responsible for the growth and development of Africa, she said.

According to Kagina, the integration of Africa is something Africa requires and needs right now for the young generation.

Former Makerere Chancellor Prof. Mondo Kagonyera said conferences of this nature are important as they bring together people of different backgrounds, experiences and intellect come together to exchange views.

He said such people they are likely to identify the actual problems facing Africa and now they can be solved.

Africa today is completely different, the population has changed but some aspects of our lives haven’t, we still have high child mortality rates and diseases,” he said.

He said some of the problems have been solved while others haven’t. Much has been achieved but more is yet to be done.

“Lack of awareness is a very big contributor to failure to look after our families. The most challenging thing about Africa is our lack of knowledge, we’re always behind when it comes to knowledge, we need to catch up with the rest of the world,” he said.

Speaking at the function President Yoweri Museveni emphasised the role of regional integration in Africa, saying that it is the most viable way of promoting trade among countries as big populations create markets for goods and services.

The summit happening Tuesday and Wednesday is organized by the Africa Strategic Leadership Centre and aims to harness the interminable energy of the African youth in forging a secure, integrated and growing Africa.

In addition, it seeks to build effective Youth-Business Alliances, which are critical for growing economies, generating opportunities to address youth employment, building and sustaining innovation and knowledge-based economies and building the future of Africa, now!

Speaking at the summit Tony Elumelu, the founder of Tony Elumelu Foundation said Africa needs leaders who value life and have no sense of entitlement. “Leaders who embrace the reality in deed and action,” he said, adding that the common people as well as the private sector can help transform Africa.

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