Tag Archives: Uganda

By Kayvan Farzaneh Growing interest in the oil sector has helped boost general confidence in Uganda’s wider economic prospects. The improved outlook rating could help Uganda access funds from international financial markets more cheaply. Last week, the international credit-ratings firm Fitch Ratings, for the first time, upgraded its opinion on …

By Roberts Katende In light of the endemic famine in Uganda and the need for sustainable solutions to the problem, the Deputy Director of World Food Programme in charge of Hunger, Sisulu Sheila visited Uganda last week. The Independent’s Roberts Katende talked to her about the new strategies. Below are …

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 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 Joseph Were Uganda is the easiest place on earth to hire and fire workers, has the most flexible wage policies, is favourable to foreign direct investment and ownership of businesses, and has limited restrictions on capital flows. But it also has high favouritism amongst government officials, limited public trust …

By Onghwens Kisangala Two weeks ago, Uganda was ranked third most corrupt country in the world. The Independents Onghwens Kisangala talked to Assistant Bishop of Kampala Diocese, Zac Niringiye on why corruption is soaring. The public perception is that everyone is corrupt, is this true? There is no question that …

By Obed K. Katureebe & John Njoroge  Uganda on the brink of ethnic explosion Two weeks ago on June 16, a group of at least 200 Bunyoro politicians, political heads and elders met President Yoweri Museveni at State House Entebbe. High on agenda was the ethnic dispute between Banyoro and …

By John Njoroge & Ogwens Kisangala In 2001 parliament passed the National Honours and Awards Act. This led to the formation of a nine-member Presidential Awards Committee responsible for vetting and approving Ugandans proposed to be crowned heroes. Since 1987, Uganda has had 22 Heroes Day celebrations. It is not …

By Patrick Kagenda As Zain (U) last week launched its Zap Mobile Commerce, a mobile phone based money transfer servicein Uganda in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank, in neighbouring Kenya Safaricom was launchinga similar service, Hello Money in partnership with Barclays Bank (K) Ltd. In Uganda, Standard Chartered Bank becomes …