Business

By Joe Powell July 23, 2009, 159 years after the world’s first submarine cable was laid, will go down in history as the day East Africa became fully connected to the world’s digital super-highways. Seacom’s cable, 17,000km long and costing $650 million, is now officially ‘live’ with a capacity of …

By Agencies Sale of Heritage Uganda assets to Shell more likely The oil exploration sector is rife with takeovers and speculation at the moment, and traders are currently hearing of another possible bid, Royal Dutch Shell for Heritage Oil. Initially, the value of Heritage shares rose over the news but …

  By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Tax body ranked most corrupt in East Africa In 2003 President Museveni described the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) as “a den of thieves” because the levels of corruption were alarmingly high. Soon after, the tax body restructured and appeared to have put corruption and incompetence …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Nasser Husain imports used Japanese cars from Japan for his small depot in Bugolobi opposite the defunct Tri Star fabrics factory. Husain says used cars would be affordable if it were not for the high taxes. He says a car that would cost Shs 8 million …

By Patrick Kagenda The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) is quickly learning that ‘customer is king’ is not an overrated clich. Uganda is Kenya’s top most trading partner in the region with 12.3% of all Kenyan manufactured goods heading to its westerly neighbor in 2008. According to the 2008 statistics from …

By Joe Powell Corruption continues to be endemic in Uganda with bribes either solicited or expected in a startling 35% of service interactions. The first ever East African Bribery index found that Uganda has the dubious honour of having the highest impact bribery in the region. This is measured by …

  By Patrick Kagenda The first ever Chinese run Television station is set to open shop in Uganda in the next one month. Star TV, which is to operate pay TV services, is to begin testing its signal soon. ‘We have already given them license and we should expect them …

By Patrick Kagenda When the European Union last week donated 30 million Euros (Shs 87billion) to the Uganda government, its emphasis was less on the purpose and more on the risk it was taking. The money is part of the 175 million Euro (Shs511billion) to be disbursed in six phases, …

By Molly Lister Mobile growth has shaped the past ten years, but broadband will shape the next ten years. An ITU Human Capacity Development Forum for Africa held in Kampala on July 8-10, 2009 addressed Africa’s readiness for broadband. Clive Shepherd, an expert in human resource development, says the ICT …

By Patrick Kagenda After spending over one month making headlines in the African media, the impending sale of Zain Africa operations to Vivendi the French entertainment group appears to have been concluded. Business daily Africa of Kenya Saturday 4 July said Zain has been sold. “Europe’s largest entertainment group Vivendi, …