By Patrick Kagenda When Housing Finance Bank last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Royal Palm Estates to offer mortgages to its clients to buy houses in Butabika, a Kampala city suburb, the housing sector got a rare buzz. Interested buyers of the houses still have to fork …
Read More »RVR rail failure threatens main export route
By Patrick Kagenda Kenya, Uganda governments stuck with bad concession over legal complications When it was signed in November 2006, the Uganda and Kenya governments’25-year concession to Rift Valley Railways (RVR) to run the operations of the Uganda Railway Corporation and the Kenya Railway Corporation was hailed as the “deal …
Read More »Robbed by the ‘bank’
By Patrick Kagenda & John Njoroge Weak company law fails to protect the poor and gullible from fake saving schemes To Gauda Tushabomwe, it seemed like a brilliant way to invest her money. Tushabomwe, at the time an accountant with Kabale Diocese, was introduced to a microfinance organisation called COWE …
Read More »Uganda won’t escape the global crisis
By Patrick Kagenda As the global financial crisis continues to affect economies worldwide, The Independent’s Patrick Kagenda talked to Gideon Badagawa, Executive Director Uganda Manufacturers Association on how it is affecting Uganda’s manufacturing sector. How will the global financial crisis affect Uganda? Uganda cannot escape the global economic crisis. There …
Read More »Kyeyo dollar shortage worsening inflation
By Patrick Kagenda Basing on reduced US dollar remittances into the economy last December, Forex market operators are warning of a further battering of the shilling. Experts fear the dollar scarcity that led its value to shot up by 30% from Shs 1,700 to the dollar to Shs 2,200 before …
Read More »Iraq guards: The price of Hopelessness
By Patrick Kagenda On November 3, 2008, Arthur Asiimwe Kirimani 25 was on his way to Baghdad Airport to board a plane that would return him to Uganda after a 10-month service with a private American security firm EODT. The firm that is stationed at Forward Operating Base in northern …
Read More »Fuel crisis spreads agony
By Patrick Kagenda. One year since fuel scarcity hit, Uganda is still grappling with the shortage without a solution by the government. It started on Dec 30, 2007 with post-election violence in Kenya that saw the economies of its landlocked neighbours that depend on the northern corridor for imports, including …
Read More »Lack of regional focus denies Ugandan firms, CEOs respect
By Patrick Kagenda How do East African CEO’s rate Ugandan companies? Not with much respect, according to results of a survey of about 300 CEOs from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. In fact the only name with a presence in Uganda that has maximum respect among regional CEO’s is the …
Read More »Finance experts debate impact of global crisis
By Patrick Kagenda On November 28 the National Planning Authority organized a one day National public dialogue on the impact of the global financial crisis on Uganda. Dr. Abebe Aemro Selassie the IMF senior resident representative to Uganda was the presenter and Dr Emmanuel Tumusime Mutebile Uganda’s Central Bank governor …
Read More »RVR rears ugly head in inland port saga
By Patrick Kagenda Building of an inland dry port for Uganda, already bogged down by court battles over the tendering process and location, now faces challenges over allegations that it could create an inefficient monopoly and favour Kenya. M/s Tumusime, Kabege & Co. Advocates acting on behalf of Uganda Inland …
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