Ubuntu Mwezi

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

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