Buganda Katikiro Charles Peter Mayiga has advised political leaders in Uganda to cherish their avowed doctrines and to also respect human rights, ‘just as the late Sebaana Kizito did’.
Speaking at Ssebaana’ Kizitos requiem service held at Namirembe Cathedral earlier today, the Katikiro singled out politicians Democratic Party President General Norbert Mao, his colleague Medard Lubega Ssegona and UPC stalwart Olara Otunnu, urging them to emulate Ssebaana Kizito’s passion for peace and stability in Uganda.
Katikiro Mayiga also praised the late Sebaana Kizito for contributing to the development of the Buganda kingdom, emphasizing the deceased “loved his King and the culture in which he was born.”
“All Buganda kingdom flags will be raised at half must in appreciation of his service to Buganda kingdom and Uganda in general,” the Katikiro said in a condolence message delivered on behalf of Buganda Kingdom.
At the service, the deceased’s son Joseph Kizito, who works with the World Bank in Washington hailed the Democratic Party (where his father served as President General), Statewide Insurance Company (SWICO) and the government of Uganda for recognizing the Ssebaana Kizito’s contribution to the development of Uganda.
An entrepreneur of vast political and business connections, John Ssebaana Kizito, also served in various cabinet positions and once as Mayor of Kampala, succumbed to a stroke on July 3 at Nakasero Hospital after spending two weeks in intensive care.
READY: The Uganda Cranes after their last training session
The Uganda Cranes continue preparations for their CHAN 2018 qualifier match against South Sudan, with the team preparing for the upcoming Western regional tour on Saturday.
The first leg of the CHAN qualifiers will be played on July 14 in Juba while the return leg will take place in Kampala on July 22.
As part of the preparations Cranes coach Sredjovic Micho named a 23-man squad that travelled to Kabale for the Western region tour with the match to take place at the Kabale Municipal Stadium.
The team held its last training session at Namboole stadium, Kampala on Thursday evening before setting off for Kabale on Friday morning.
Previously the Cranes have also visited the Buganda Region (Masaka), North East (Soroti), Northern (Gulu), Kitara (Masindi), West Nile (Arua) and the Eastern Region (Mbale).
Meanwhile, KCCA’s Brian Majwega and Tom Masiko were named to the Cranes team after failing to travel with their club to Tunisia. KCCA play Club Africain tonight in the CAF Confederations Cup.
July 8th 2017 (Regional Tour)
Western Region Vs Uganda Cranes – Kabale Municipal Stadium.
The travelling squad:
Goalkeepers: Isma Watenga, Saidi Keni, Tom Ikara
Defenders: Nico Wakiro Wadada, Deus Bukenya, Nicholas Kasozi, John Adriko, Savio Kabugo, Bernard Muwanga, Rashid Toha, Majwega Brian
Midfielders: Bukenya Lawrence, Method Bassey, Shafiq Kagimu, Tom Matisko, Martin Kizza, Simon Sserunkuma, Milton Karisa, Erisa Ssekisambu
Strikers: Nelson Senkatuka, Shaban Mohamed, Julius Malingumu, Solomon Okwalinga.
TO REWWARD BEST INVESTMENT CLUB: The headquarters of dfcu Bank in Uganda
dfcu Bank, in partnership with NTV Uganda and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) have today launched a nationwide reward campaign targeted at driving a savings and investment culture in Uganda.
The Shs100 million reward campaign, which will run – in part as a TV show competition dubbed ‘Battle for Cash’, was launched at the Kampala Serena Hotel, with the media fraternity having the first hands-on experience.
The dfcu Bank Executive Director and Chief of Business William Sekabembe, said two special categories of women and youth have been included. Clubs with 100% composition of these special groups will apply to enter the competition and into a special category for Women Clubs and Youth increasing their chances of winning.
“We are putting a lot of emphasis on these two categories because we believe they play a major role in the development of communities and Uganda as a whole,” he added.
The ‘Battle for Cash,’ challenge will provide a free platform to Investment Clubs to showcase their success stories over a period of six (6) months.
The best investment club will take the Shs100m prize, while one delegate from each of the 20 selected clubs that will enter the competition will be sponsored to attend a study tour in Nairobi to share experiences, network, and widen their knowledge and contacts. The top seven (7) clubs will also receive free advisory services for a period of one (1) year.
As part of several efforts to promote a savings culture in Uganda, dfcu Bank introduced the Investment Clubs program in 2007 providing a conducive platform to foster group savings. The dfcu Bank program has since grown with over 10,000 Investment Clubs that cut across all segments including students, the professionals, women, youths holding a savings turnover of over UGX 400 billion. Also, clubs that are able to present innovative investment ideas and demonstrate the ability to consistently pool savings towards the realization of their objective for a minimum period of six months will be eligible to enter the competition. They will have the opportunity to showcase their ideas and investment projects on NTV Uganda.
Compared to the countries in the region, Uganda has the lowest savings to GDP ratio, at 13.48 per cent of GDP, with majority of the population ‘un-banked’.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, only 12% of the population have bank accounts while research shows that Ugandans save less than 5% of their monthly earnings as compared to other East African countries (Kenya 23%; Tanzania 13% Rwanda 18%).
The low savings rates are largely a result of traditional banking remaining out of reach for most due to factors like; inadequate financial services; financial illiteracy; physical distance from banking institutions and high minimum deposit and balance requirements, limiting access to banking services.
But banks have taken huge strides in addressing these shortcomings by recognizing the potential and are introducing resourceful methods of bringing them back into the formal economy by introducing several innovative products and services.
FLASHBACK: President Yoweri Museveni meeting Muslim of the Kibuli faction
Two Muslim-turned-Christian ‘Pastors’ in Kampala have vowed to storm Parliament to protest against the imminent passing of the Islamic Banking Bill that seeks to operationalize Islamic banking services in Uganda.
The group led by ‘Pastor’ Stephen Waiswa of the Bible Evangelism Ministries allege that Islamic Banking is based on the Islamic Sharia’h Law, yet Uganda is not an Islamic country.
“We will go to Parliament and tell the MPs about the dangers of Islamic Banking,” said Pastor Waiswa, a former Muslim who studied in Iran, one of the staunch Islamic countries.
“Islamic Banking is based on Islamic principles which are anti-Christianity,” says Abdul Karim Waligo, another pastor from the same church located near Clock Tower, along Entebbe Road.
According to Pastor Waligo, Islamic banking is a brainchild of Muslim fundamentalists in the Middle East and a subtle way of spreading Islam as a religion to the rest of the world.
“Our Motto says, ‘For God and my country’. I am surprised that government wants to bring Islamic banking to our country,” he adds.
The two pastors made the pronouncement as they addressed gatherers who were attending a public debate between pastors and sheikhs.
Contrary to the pastors’ concerns, proponents of Islamic banking say it paves way for the sharing of net profit/loss and the risk involved in a proportional manner between the lender and the beneficiary.
“If a financier is expecting a claim on profits of a project, it is necessary that he/she should also carry a proportional share of the loss of that project,” an official from Tropical bank says. Tropical Bank is one those local commercial banks that are slated to begin Islamic banking as soon as Parliament clears the related bill.
According to the Bill, willing commercial banks and other financial institutions recognized by the Bank of Uganda will be free to offer the Islamic banking services and products under the system that is already running in Kenya and Tanzania, Uganda’s EAC partners.
Unlike conventional commercial banking, Islamic banking, experts say, does not base loan acquisition on the collateral, the reason why government is interested in having this type of banking, especially at the time when interest rates in the country can only be managed by a few individuals and businesses.
At the presentation of the 2017/18 national budget last month, President Yoweri Museveni said his government would operationalize Islamic banking soon to serve property-less borrowers, stressing that commercial banks had resisted lowering their lending rates.
‘Western’ or conventional financing looks
NOT AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT: One of the most prominent Muslim Parliamentarians Kawempe North MP Latif Ssebaggala
to profit through interest payments and makes the beneficiary completely liable for any risk.
Efforts to contact Kawempe North MP Latif Ssebaggala to give a comment were futile as his known phone contacts were off. A Muslim, Ssebaggala is one of the MPs that vehemently support the bill.
Meanwhile, groups of Muslim and non-Muslim businessmen this reporter talked to are in favour of Islamic banking and are hopeful that it will help them access funding to expand their businesses.
“I have a welding business in Kisenyi which needs funding but our banks have lending conditions that I can’t fulfill. I hope Islamic banking will help me grow my business,” says one Yunus Kitata.
According to Prof. Raj Bhala of the University of Kansas Law School, Islamic finance is a roughly US $3 trillion industry and Islamic financial products are offered in Islamic and non-Islamic countries to Muslim and non-Muslims alike.
But Prof. Bhala says that with so much attention since 9-11, Middle East conflicts, and world-wide terrorism, ‘the nature of Islamic finance is not widely understood despite being successful, and founded on an ethically well-based system’.
'EXCHANGED MISSIVES: President Yoweri Museveni greets 'Ghetto President' Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine
For a while musician Robert Kyagulanyi popularly known as Bobi Wine has eluded President Yoweri Museveni.
Even when his colleagues popularly known as the ‘Tubonga Nawe’ group were fighting for selfies and the old man’s money, the ‘Ghetto President’, a strong critic of Museveni, was not anywhere close.
However, Bobi Wine ran out of tricks when he found himself in the same place with President Museveni aka Sevo in the entertainment circles, after the release of his campaign hit ‘Another Rap’.
Bobi Wine and Museveni met last night at the vigil of fallen DP stalwart, John Ssebana Kizito, and as is the norm, the President shook hands with all leaders around including Bobi Wine, the newly-elected MP for Kyadondo East.
Now, Bobi Wine’s fans have dubbed the handshake as a ‘Meet and Greet’ of their MP.
ACCUSED FINANCE MINISTRY OFFICIALS OF CREATING GHOSTS: Minister of Trade and Cooperatives Amelia Kyambadde.
Uganda leads three other East African countries -Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda in the top 10 fastest growing countries, though, according to projections, a significant fraction of that growth is due to rapid population growth.
On a per capita basis, the report presented by researchers at the Centre for International Development (CID) at Harvard University says Uganda, which follows India, is the only East African country that remains in the top 10 in the growth projections, though at 4.5 percent annually, its prospects are more modest.
The researchers attribute India’s rapid growth prospects to the fact that it is particularly well positioned to continue diversifying into new areas, given the capabilities accumulated to date. India has made inroads in diversifying its export base to include more complex sectors, such as chemicals, vehicles, and certain electronics.
“The major oil economies are experiencing the pitfalls of their reliance on one resource. India, Indonesia, and Vietnam have accumulated new capabilities that allow for more diverse and more complex production that predicts faster growth in the coming years,” said Ricardo Hausmann, director of CID, professor at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), and the lead researcher of The Atlas of Economic Complexity.
The growth projections are based on measures of each country’s economic complexity, which captures the diversity and sophistication of the productive capabilities embedded in its exports and the ease with which it could further diversify by expanding those capabilities.
Growth in emerging markets is predicted to continue to outpace that of advanced economies, though not uniformly. The projections are optimistic about new growth hubs in East Africa and new segments of Southeast Asia, led by Indonesia and Vietnam.
“The economic pole of global growth has moved over the past few years from China to neighboring India, where it is likely to stay over the coming decade,” says the report
In examining the latest 2015 global trade data, CID researchers find a clear turn in trade winds, as 2015 marks the first year for which world exports have fallen since the 2009 global financial crisis.
This time around, the decline in trade was driven largely by the fall in oil prices. High oil prices had driven a decade of rapid growth in oil economies, outpacing expectations, says the report.
Since the decline in oil prices in mid-2014, growth in oil economies ground to a halt, where it is likely to stay, according to the projections, given little progress on diversification and complexity.
The projections warn of a continued slowdown in global growth over the coming decade.
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has collected more than Ugx 100 billion in contributions from its members in the month of June 2017, ending a challenging financial year on a high, the Managing Director Richard Byarugaba has said.
It is the first time that the Fund has hit the Ugx 100 billion mark in contributions in a single month; the previous highest mark was Ugx 85 billion that was collected in June 2016.
“This UGX100 billion plus contributions collection performance in a single month is the best ever in the history of the Fund. 2016/17 has been a challenging financial year, but we have come through with yet another collections milestone that is above our monthly collections target of Ugx 77 billion. I applaud all staff at the Fund for their tireless efforts,” Mr. Byarugaba said.
Byarugaba added that he is optimistic the Fund will better last year’s overall financial performance, in spite of the challenges the economy faced in the just concluded financial year, which have had an effect on the business environment.
“We have started appraising our overall performance for the just concluded financial year and we will communicate to our members after completion of this process. But going by our reviews over the last 12 months, I am positive that we have created value for our members”, he said.
Last year, Byarugaba told journalists that despite posting a good return for the year 2015/16, the Fund’s performance was affected by stock markets decline across East Africa that distressed the Fund’s equity portfolio. Other factors included volatility of the Uganda shilling against foreign currencies and pre and post-election uncertainly, which had a knock on effect on the business environment.
As a result, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Planning Matia Kasaija declared an interest rate of 12.3% interest, worth over Ugx 606 billion credited to NSSF members’ accounts.
Byarugaba could not confirm the new interest rate that the Fund will pay, but said that it will be declared by the Minister, in accordance with the NSSF Act.
“The declaration by the Minister will happen possibly in September this year and will depend on how well the Fund has performed. However, I can confirm is that the rate will not be less than the 10 year average rate of inflation plus 2 percentage points, which is in line with our commitment to pay our members a real return,” he said.
NSSF invests in fixed income, real estate and equities. It is the largest institutional investor on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) and one of the largest domestic holders of Government of Uganda debt.
REGIONAL CANCER CENTRE: The start of radiotherapy services is the fruit of many people’s hard work over the last 24 months
Thousands of cancer patients in Uganda, mostly those from the eastern region, will be able to access treatment following the opening of the Eldoret Comprehensive Cancer Centre, in Kenya.
The facility in the fast-growing agricultural and trade town of Eldoret in Western Kenya, is a subsidiary of Equra Health Kenya, and will reportedly serve a broader population of about 20 million people across Western Kenya, Uganda and parts of Rwanda; ‘many of whom previously would have had to fly or travel over five hours by road to Nairobi for treatment’.
Offering world-class facilities with the latest radiotherapy equipment, the new Eldoret Comprehensive Cancer Centre can treat up to 60 patients a day and brings advanced cancer treatment to the doorstep of a region that was largely under-served in terms of advanced radiotherapy, a statement indicates.
The Eldoret Comprehensive Cancer Centre first opened its doors for oncology consultations, chemotherapy services and 24-hour in-hospital care in August 2016, and began offering comprehensive radiotherapy, a first for Western Kenya, at the beginning of April 2017. Full services have been available since the beginning of June 2017.
Mr. Erhardt Korf, CEO of Equra Health Kenya Limited, the owners and operators of the facility, notes that Equra Health has also invested significantly in infrastructure to deliver stable power supplies to the facility. “We have implemented additional surge protection and powerful UPS systems to ensure reliable power and stable levels of service,” he says.
He added: “Our company philosophy has always been to take comprehensive oncology services closer to where people live and work. In South Africa too, we invest in centres outside of the major metros to deliver advanced cancer treatment to those who cannot easily travel to the major cities.”
Mr. Korf says Eldoret was selected as the site of the latest Equra Health radiotherapy facility due to its extensive regional population and the fact that the town already has a strong medical referral infrastructure and oncology experts such as Dr. Jesse Opaka, now the main treating Clinical and Radiation Oncologist at the new Centre.
“The opening of the new centre represents a new dawn of quality cancer care in this region. The start of radiotherapy services is the fruit of many people’s hard work over the last 24 months, and we are looking forward to serving the community in Kenya and surrounds with our quality service and excellent patient care. We believe that positive clinical outcomes matter most, and that value in healthcare is always a function of both the outcomes achieved and the cost paid for the services,” Dr. Opakas said.
The new Eldoret Comprehensive Cancer Centre was officially launched with a facility tour, followed by a reception at the Boma Inn Hotel on 6 July, 2017.
NDA TO TEST FOOD SUPPLEMENTS: Dr. Sarah Byakiika addressing delegates at the Entebbe meet
The Ministry of Health has said it is planning to expand the National Drug Authority (NDA) mandate to include regulating food supplements in addition to drugs.
The disclosure was made by the Commissioner of Planning in the Ministry of Health, Dr Sarah Byakika, while addressing the just-concluded continental gathering of patients taking place in Entebbe.
“Before we start harmonising (drug regulations) at a national level, let’s talk about what’s taking place at the lower levels. We have the National Drug Authority (NDA) to ensure that the drugs are safe and utilised. NDA is to strengthen to look beyond drugs; we want to include food because we have realised that people are supplying unsafe food supplements,” Dr. Byakika revealed, stressing that there is an urgent need for regulation of food supplements.
Dr. Byakika was addressing patients from across Africa under their umbrella body, Uganda Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (UAPO), gathering in Entebbe, Uganda to discuss patient involvement in the upcoming plans for the African Medicines Agency (AMA).
Held under the theme: ‘Harmonisation for Patient-Centred Universal Health Coverage in Africa’ the two-day meeting at Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel, Entebbe, deliberated on ways of ensuring the patient voice is reflected in the Agency, which is due to be launched in 2018 as part of the of the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization Initiative (AMRH).
The global umbrella organization, the International Alliance for Patients’ Organizations (IAPO) based in London, United Kingdom and the Uganda Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (UAPO), based in Uganda have embarked on the process of fostering patient involvement in the creation of AMA.
Kawaldip Sehmi, the Chief Executive Officer, IAPO, said: “Through interactive capacity building and knowledge-sharing sessions, IAPO and UAPO members and stakeholders will develop the tools to ensure that the patient movement across the region is made up of strong patient advocates.
“The goal will be to prepare patient advocates to take on the challenges and opportunities to arise from increasing regulatory harmonisation across Africa over the next few years.”
Joshua Wamboga, Chair-Elect, IAPO and Executive Director, UAPO, said: “Africa’s disease burden is finely balanced between infectious and non-communicable diseases, both of which require quality and safe medicines to address the pressing public health challenges faced by the region today and in the future.
“We believe that patient groups and patient advocates have an important role to play in developing and implementing strategies to meet these challenges. We hope to explore how all stakeholders can better work together to make this a reality.”
In 2009 the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) Initiative was established to guarantee and accelerate regulatory harmonisation in the African continent. The founding actors, which include the WHO, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the Pan African Parliament, the African Regional Economic Communities and Organizations (RECs) and the national medicines regulatory authorities (NMRAs), concluded that “now is the right time to push for regulatory harmonisation in Africa.”
On resources, the AMRH says that 90 per cent of African NMRAs are incapable of guaranteeing quality, safety, and efficacy due to resource constraints. Because inefficient regulation can result in higher costs for medicines, patients in low and middle income countries are likely to particularly suffer from the lack of a harmonised strategy in medicines regulation.
According to the WHO and NEPAD, today there are more than 50 different NMRAs in Africa working independently to assess and authorise medicines.
These authorities rely on different procedures and have different standards in place, exhibiting a situation of structural fragmentation.
South African President Jacob Zuma (L) and his Sudan counterpart Omar El Bashir
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rebuked South Africa for not arresting Sudan’s president on a genocide warrant when he visited Johannesburg in 2015, but declined to refer Pretoria to the United Nations for possible censure over the lapse.
The ICC indicted Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2008 over the deaths and persecution of ethnic groups in Sudan’s Darfur province between 2003 and 2008. But he has continued to travel internationally, visiting Jordan as recently as March.
The first part of Thursday’s ICC ruling was expected as the war crimes court has consistently rejected arguments put forward by the South African government, namely that it could not arrest Bashir because visiting heads of state at the African Union Summit held in the country enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
ICC judges said that heads of state or government clearly fall under the court’s jurisdiction and cannot be exempted at home or abroad, echoing the conclusion of a South African domestic court.
The second stage of the ruling was surprising as it was the first time the ICC found one of its members had defied its rules, yet took no action by reporting South Africa to the U.N. Security Council or ICC member states for possible censure.
“The decision is something of an indictment of the U.N. Security Council and the (ICC’s) Assembly of State Parties,” ICC expert and legal scholar Mark Kersten told Reuters.
Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser, reading a summary of the ruling, noted that past referrals of countries to the Security Council for noncompliance were ‘futile’ in terms of leading to further action and also ‘not an effective way to obtain cooperation’ with the ICC.
Bashir denies wrongdoing and has rejected ICC jurisdiction. It was the Security Council itself that referred Sudan’s case to the ICC in 2005 and the ICC’s decision not to refer South Africa might also be intended in part to dissuade it from pulling out of the court.
In February, the African Union called for member states to leave the ICC over a perceived bias by prosecutors in focusing on African conflicts.
Kenya, Namibia, Burundi and South Africa have threatened to ditch the ICC and Pretoria began the formal withdrawal process last year before being blocked by a domestic court for not getting parliament’s approval first before pulling out.
In The Hague, South African Ambassador Bruce Koloane said that for the time being “(we are) still a member effectively of the ICC, we still have to honour all our obligations”, while in South Africa, opinions on what to do next were divided.
Pretoria’s foreign affairs department said the government would study the ruling “and its implications and seek legal opinion on available options”.
Siphosezwe Masango, who chairs parliament’s international relations committee, said he remained convinced South Africa was right not to arrest Bashir, “a sitting head of state”.
Pretoria’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said the ICC ruling was an indictment of Zuma’s ANC government, noting it had upheld the domestic court’s position.
“The ANC seems intent on relegating South Africa to the status of a scumbag nation which protects the law-breakers and corrupter of this world,” DA Federal Executive Chairperson James Selfe said.
