By Richard Oundo Fifteen years after the genocide, Rwanda is shedding the old coat of political and economic turmoil and replacing it with a bustle of projects aimed at transforming the country into an East African economic giant. As part of that drive, on April 6, the first Presidential Advisory …

By Patrick Kagenda Crane Bank registered tremendous growth in its asset base on top of growing its lending portfolio. The Independent’s Patrick Kagenda talked to the bank’s managing director A.R.Kalan. Crane Bank made Shs 25.88 billion in profits in 2008 even as the global financial meltdown hit most businesses. Your …

By Patrick Kagenda Small import/export clearing firms form the backbone of local clearing and forwarding business in most countries. So to survive in the competitive international trading environment “” both against bureaucratic red-tape and well-resourced multi-nationals, they have always naturally found strength in numbers by operating under umbrella bodies. In …

By Patrick Kagenda Central Bank Governor Tumusime Mutebile called it “the most innovative thinking in development literature in 30 years” but the 2009 World Development Report has sparked strong opposition among Uganda’s economic experts. They disagree on answers to two fundamental questions posed by the report: Whether the growing concentrations …

By Patrick Kagenda As discussions on the East African Common Market protocol closed in Kampala at the beginning of April, the Uganda Manufactures Association (UMA) leaders were meeting Uganda’s first deputy prime minister and minister for East African Community Affairs Eriya Kategaya. The UMA bosses had one major concern: the …

By Independent Team & Agencies After it ended on April 2 the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group President, Donald Kaberuka, who was part of a NEPAD delegation, said the G-20 summit was a major success because it adopted specific African proposals. I think we made a very surprising level of …

By Independent Team & Agencies AS expected, Tullow Oil and its partner Heritage Oil have won back rights to explore for oil in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a year-long dispute, the country’s hydrocarbons minister, Rene Isekemanga Nkeka, has said. Congo’s previous hydrocarbons minister, Lambert Mende, in February 2008, …

By Agnes Asiimwe Dr. Sebbaale Kato is the CEO of Case Medical Centre in Kampala and a senior lecturer in the department of surgery of Makerere University, a pioneer laparoscopic surgeon and gastroenterologist. Kato is also chairman of Uganda Cricket Association, a golfer, and a born-again Christian. What’s your day …

By The Independent Team This is a new self-help book for brand strategists, marketers, and corporate managers whose salient point is one: A brand is only valuable as long as it’s moving forward. Just as a shark must keep swimming to stay alive, brands must keep moving forward to maintain …

By Kalundi Serumaga The Ugandan government has finally woken up. It has accepted that the western economic crisis will indeed have a seriously negative impact on Uganda Such an admission is no small matter for people who have been enthusiastic advocates of completely opening up Africa’s economies to Western engagement, …