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When coffee and tourism blended

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Tourists (above) hike along the Huye Coffee tour experience trail on March 5, 2016.  Photo Credit/Stephen Nuwagira Need is the mother of all innovations, goes an old adage. It is also true that solutions to most of our problems are always around us. So, when a Huye-based farmer sought sustainable ways to market local coffee and promote Rwanda’s unique tourism attractions to the outside world, the resources at hand came in handy.  The farmer created a ‘coffee experience tour’ hiking trail across the Huye Mountain Coffee plantation and the historically important Nyirankoko hill just above the plantation. Where does the coffee you drink at Ban Café or any other coffee houses come from? Or why would one visit a coffee or tea farm, or a cattle ranch? These questions are expounded on during the hike and, by the time one descends the hill, they are ready to roast and brew their first coffee as the hike takes you through all the stages of the coffee production process, right from plan
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Agriculture will drive East Africa's growth not oil

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The discovery of commercially viable oil and gas deposits in East Africa has caused a lot of excitement among ordinary citizens, as well as political and business leaders. This has led some sections of the population and leaders argue that the region could soon reach the take off stage and develop substantially like the Asian Tigers, on the back of the oil and gas sector. Tanzania has huge gas reserves, while Kenya and Uganda have discovered oil and gas in commercially viable quantities, with first oil expected to start flowing in two-four years. Uganda has about 3.5 billion barrels oil while Kenya so far has over 600 million barrels of oil deposits that have been confirmed to date. Rwanda is also exploring for oil and gas, but has various firms involved in mining of different minerals like wolfram and cassetirite in different parts of the country, as well as the methane gas deposits on Lake Kivu. These discoveries present huge opportunities and could potentially turn around t
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Government lawyers in East Africa to sharpen oil and gas negotiation and policy-making skills

Public sector lawyers involved in drafting of the extractives sector laws and policies in the region will next week undergo training to improve their negotiation and policy-making skills. The training is aimed at assisting East African Community (EAC) countries to make extractive industry contracts and related policy to ensure they achieve tangible benefits from their natural resources, the East African Development Bank (EADB), which is hosting the training, said in statement yesterday. The training, that takes place from March 9-14 in Kigali, targets senior government lawyers involved in policy formulation and negotiations and law dons from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. “The training is designed to build the capacity of public sector lawyers involved in negotiating transactions and drafting agreements for extractive and other industries,” it added. The bank said the training will help reduce the risk of costly or politically-difficult dispute resolution, goin
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Rwanda to start commercial bio-diesel production as government gazettes enabling law

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I t is said that perseverance and patience are virtues that only those who know clearly the road they must take possess. At last the country’s dream of becoming a net bio-diesel producer could become reality after the Government published the law establishing an agency that will help deliver this vision. According to the country’s lead industrial research organisation, Rwanda Institute of Science and Technology (IRST) director general, Dr. Jean Baptiste Nduwayezu, the law to transform the institute into the National Industrial Research and Development Agency (NIRDA) was published in the official gazette on July 29. It replaces the IRST law of 1989. Nduwayezu lauded the development, saying the woes IRST has been facing could soon be history as NIRDA will be an independent agency mandated with developing and marketing its innovations. The research institute has majorly been spearheading the bio-diesel processing and marketing project at Kigali Bio-fuel Research Centre in Mulindi, Gasab
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Oil: Can Uganda avoid Ghana's gold curse?

By Stephen Nuwagira The discovery of minerals or oil and gas in any country excites citizens and leaders because confirmation of commercially-viable quantities of the resource could be a harbinger of an improved economy and livelihood.But problems come when law-makers draft policies that do not properly guide on the use the money accruing from the resource or how to exploit the resource sustainably.  This has led to destruction of the bio-diversity in resource-rich areas and betrayal of the citizens’ expectations as communities in these areas continue to wallow in poverty, with poor social amenities and low standards of living. Such a situation is what is being experienced by the Teberebie community in Nsuaem, Tarkwa constituency in Ghana’s gold-rich Western region, and could rear its ugly head in Uganda’s resource-rich regions if the Government does not ensure sustainable exploitation and proper use of oil returns. Although Ghana started mining gold in the area decades a
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