RWANDA: Bugesera International Airport To Be Completed By 2019

With the backing of the African Legal Support Facility, the Government of Rwanda has taken a concrete step toward becoming a transportation hub for the East African region with the signing of a concession agreement for the construction and operation of Bugesera International Airport.
Kigali is being positioned to become a nerve center for business, travel, and shipping in the sub-region.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the government of Rwanda by the minister of infrastructure, James Musoni and Manuel Mota, chief executive officer of Monta-Engil, on behalf of the developer and the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor respectively.

Worth approximately $700 million, the Bugesera Airport project is designed to be executed across four phases. The first phase will involve approximately 27 months of construction - at an estimated cost of $400 million - and is expected to be completed by 2019, at which point the airport will be able to accommodate 1.8 million passengers annually.

The development of Bugesera Airport is aligned with Rwanda's Vision 2020 - an ambitious strategy which aims to transform Rwanda into a knowledge-based, middle-income country by the end of the decade - as well as the country's economic development and poverty reduction strategy (EDPRS).

As such, the project is designed and is being implemented with the aim of generating socio-economic development in Bugesera, Kigali, and other parts of the Eastern Province. The airport will further sustain the development of the aviation sector by backstopping the growth of RwandAir with new facilities and training opportunities. The project is expected to provide approximately 2,000 jobs for local residents.

The ALSF provided assistance to the government of Rwanda in the development of the project, notably the provision of legal advisers who supported the government in its negotiations between project partners in the concession agreement for the construction and development of the airport.

The coordination of legal efforts was instrumental in ensuring the signing, first of a project development agreement and joint-venture agreement between the Rwandan government and investor, and subsequently of the concession agreement.

"We have anticipated this project for close to 10 years, all the while relying largely on local expertise," explained Emmanuel Rugambwa, a strategic investment analyst at the Rwanda Development Board.

"When we approached the ALSF, they swiftly helped us procure the required expertise to structure the project such that it attracts private capital. Since then, we've had many banks express interest in joining the project. The ALSF grant also includes a capacity building component which ensures that the procured experts will train Rwandans to monitor the project's development, as well as to structure future projects in a similar manner."

The Bugesera airport is designed to ease the air traffic load currently being experienced at Kigali International Airport which is the nearest to Kigali's central business district in Kanombe, 10km east.

In 2009 the Rwandan government employed TPS, a British engineering firm, to design and carry out a feasibility study to develop a new airport in Nyamata village in Bugesera, 40km south of Kigali.

The Bugesera Airport is designed to handle one million passengers and 150 million tonnes of cargo annually during its first phase from 2015 to 2025. Subsequent phases will follow with higher passenger and cargo capacities.

Under its second phase, Bugesera will incorporate building a second runway to approximate the capacity of the largest world airports.

The airport is also designed to provide leisure, hotels, and conference facilities. It is further hoped a free trade zone will be created in the area which will spur economic development.

Bugesera is an ideal location for an international airport because as Kigali expands, the two areas are expected to marry.



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RWANDA: Rwanda A Hot Cake Destination In Africa

Rwanda has been recognized as a striding and fast-growing tourist destination in East Africa, attracting high-class holidaymakers from China, Europe, and the United States.

Known as the “land of a thousand hills,” Rwanda is standing as a leading and attractive tourist destination, competing with Kenya, which is the tourist power point in East Africa.

Gorilla trekking safaris, rich cultures of the Rwandese people, scenery, and a friendly tourist investment environment available in Rwanda have all made this African nation one of the best and most attractive destinations for global holidaymakers.

Rwanda is coming up and the leading nation in East Africa, attracting regional and global conferences in its capital city of Kigali. More than 30 regional and international conferences are scheduled to take place in Kigali within the remaining months of the year.

The Africa Travel Association (ATA) World Congress is one among many of the key, global tourism gatherings to take place in Kigali this year. Expected to attract over 300 global tourism policy makers and travel trade industry leaders, the ATA Congress will be held in August of this year for the first time in Rwanda since its inception in 1975.

The Africa Hotel Investments Forum (AHIF) is another tourism gathering scheduled in Kigali for October of this year.

China, an emerging global tourist market is as well targeting Rwanda as its outbound safari destination. Chinese firms from Jiangsu Province have expressed interest in Rwanda’s tourism and hospitality sector.

Gao Yan, the director for foreign affairs in Jiangsu Province, said companies from the province are looking at investing in hotels, road construction, and the aviation sector, which are instrumental for growth of the local hospitality and tourism sectors.

“We want to focus on tourism and related sectors, because Rwanda is a top destination in the region. This offers us huge investment opportunities, especially setting up hotels in national parks like Akagera and Nyungwe that have unique experiences,” Gao said.

Gao was previously the second secretary and councilor at the Chinese Embassy in Rwanda, where he spent three years. He added that tourism is one of the projects Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to support in Rwanda.

The tourism industry is Rwanda’s top foreign exchange earner, and government has been positioning the country as a must-visit and conferences destination in the region.

Rwanda is targeted to earn $400 million from tourism last year (2016), up from $318 million in 2015. The country expected tourist and visitor numbers to increase by 4 percent last year, up from 1.3 million recorded in 2015.

Located in eastern China, Jiangsu Province is an industrialized area contributing 10 percent to China’s GDP. The province’s GDP per capita stands at $40,000.

Firms from Jiangsu Province are currently developing 5-star hotels and beach properties in Mauritius and Madagascar, according to Gao.

“Our people are traveling more and more to visit Africa, and Rwanda should be their perfect destination,” he said. He added that companies from the province are being encouraged to diversify into the services sector, a shift from manufacturing and mining.

RWANDA: Aviation Industry Improved Greatly 2016

Rwanda aviation industry is set to end a well spent year with improvements in all sectors.

The company says capacity building for the national carrier in 2016 is commendable.

Africa’s fastest-growing airline acquired three top of the range equipment in the past three months to boost its capacity, bringing its fleet to 12 aircrafts.

With Rwanda looking to becoming a conference hub through the Meetings Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions, the government invested a lot of money in aviation infrastructure, equipment, and processes to make the sector more efficient.

RWANDA: Tourism Is Number One Foreign Exchange Earner

Rwanda’s tourism sector continues to grow positioning itself as the leading foreign earner for the country.
During the financial year 2013/14, the sector registered a three per cent increase in the number of visitors to Rwanda, growing from 1.14 million visitors to 1.2 million visitors. This accounted for an increase in revenue to $303 million in 2014 from $293.4 million in 2013.

The country recorded $317 million (about Rwf247.9 billion) receipts from tourism in 2015, making the sector the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner. It also exceeded last year’s earnings target by $5 million to generate $39 million in revenues and income, according to Rwanda Development Board statistics.

Rwanda will host key global conferences in Kigali this year, including the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF), the World Economic Forum on Africa, as well as African Union Summit.

President and chief executive officer, World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) David Scowsill, said he was optimistic that the sector will continue growing at a higher rate than world GDP, and creating more jobs.

“We are also committed to protecting the world’s natural resources. In an uncertain world driven by conflict, fear, climate change and resource scarcity, it is our sector to which governments can look for economic certainty,” he told the delegates while closing the WTTC Global Summit in Dallas, Texas in the US last week.

He said tourism holds the key to global economic sustainability, innovation, job-creation, and economic generation.

He challenged world leaders “to step up to harness the opportunities of travel and tourism and for the leaders of our sector to embrace that opportunity.”

“The key issue we have addressed is the implication for freedom to travel of the twin threats of terrorism and the movement of displaced peoples. Global problems require a global response. That is why we welcome the challenge laid down by the US government for the public and the private sectors to work together, to improve radically inter-agency cooperation and the sharing of information across the world,” Scowsill said.

Scowsill had at the start of the organisation’s annual global summit, urged world governments, especially in Europe and America, not to close their borders to migrants because of terrorism.

“Closing borders and jeopardising the freedom to travel is not the answer to the current security concerns. World leaders need to stand together and act now, with the support of the travel and tourism sector,” he told the assembled private and public sector delegates at the conference in Dallas, Texas in the US.

Scowsill argued that though the combination of global terrorism and an international refugee crisis was creating an unprecedented threat, closing our borders and jeopardising our freedom to travel was not the solution. “We have to prevent an overreaction from governments.”

The two-day WTTC Global Summit brought together travel and tourism leaders, who discussed the pressing issues affecting the sector today; notably safety and security, sustainability, and the influence of recent geopolitical shifts and technological developments, according to the WTTC statement.

WTTC’s annual Global Summit brings together over 800 delegates to discuss the opportunities, challenges and issues facing the industry, while its Tourism for Tomorrow Awards recognise the industry’s power to be a positive force in sustainability.

He said the travel and tourism sector should show the leadership required to keep people travelling despite concerns over security and the movement of refugees.

“We are trying to break the boundaries, but others are doing the opposite, building border walls,” said the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) president and chief executive officer David Scowsill.

He challenged the global travel and tourism industry to double their efforts and “go further than we have ever gone before in championing and resolving the big issues of our age. Let’s claim the leadership position.”

Globally, the travel and tourism sector contributes $7.2 trillion annually, almost 10 per cent of the world’s GDP, and accounts for 284 million jobs, 9.5 per cent of total employment or one in eleven of all jobs on the planet, making it a powerful contributor to the global economy, Scowsill said in a statement from WTTC secretariat.

“We account for 6 per cent of all exports and 4 per cent of all investment,” he added.

In Africa as a whole, the sector is a highly attractive growth industry, and it is responsible for 8.1 per cent of GDP and it is forecast to rise at 4.9 per cent per annum until 2025, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Next year, the WTTC Global Summit will take place from April 26-27 in Bangkok.

RWANDA: 24 Baby Mountain Gorillas Named

Rwanda named two-dozen baby mountain gorillas in an annual ceremony Saturday that highlights the African country's efforts to protect the endangered animals, which attract large numbers of foreign tourists to the volcano-studded forests where they live.

The young gorillas, identified by trackers and researchers, were in their wild habitat nearby and not at the naming event Saturday in Kinigi, near the entrance to Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. But Rwandan President Paul Kagame was among thousands of people who gathered there to celebrate the threatened population of mountain gorillas, whose image adorns numerous sculptures in Rwanda as well as a national currency banknote.

The Rwandan government hopes the naming ceremony, which began in 2005 and is based on a similar tradition among Rwandans, will highlight the importance of protecting mountain gorillas as well as promote the tourism industry, the country's top foreign currency earner. Researchers also refer to the names to identify gorillas and their families while conducting studies in the wild.

The names bestowed on the gorillas on Saturday included the words for "Power," ''Courage" and Conviviality" in the Rwandan language.

Rwanda's mountain gorillas live in the Virunga Massif, which spans Volcanoes National Park as well as parks in neighboring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another population of mountain gorillas lives in a separate area of Uganda.

The numbers of mountain gorillas dropped dramatically in the last century because of poaching, disease and human encroachment on their habitats. The total population of mountain gorillas is currently an estimated 900; conservationists say the population has been increasing in recent years.

About Kwita Izina
Naming a newly born baby has been part of Rwandan culture and tradition for centuries. Given the remarkable efforts by the Government of Rwanda, through the Rwanda Development Board, and in collaboration with various conservation partners and local communities , to actively protect the Mountai n Gorillas and their habitat, the old naming century’s tradition was modelled on these species to get the national brand known as “Kwita Izina”.

Names attributed to the gorillas play a significant role in the on-going programme of monitoring each individual gorilla in their families and habitat. Kwita Izina, a uniquely Rwandan event, was introduced in 2005 with the aim of creating awareness of conservation efforts for the endangered mountain gorilla.

For three decades prior to the first official gorilla naming ceremony, the naming of baby gorillas was carried out with little awareness amidst the public by the rangers and researchers that closely monitor these unique animals on a daily basis.

Kwita Izina has been attended by thousands of international, regional and local participants over the recent years. The Government of Rwanda and conservation partners have donated substantial resources to gorilla conservation and continue to do so. Each year new born gorilla babies are celebrated in an exciting event at the foothills of the Virunga Mountains .

Tourism that focuses on natural environments is a large and growing part of the tourism industry in Rwanda. While it can contribute in a positive manner to soci o-economic development and environmenta l protection, uncontrolled tourism growth can also cause environmental degradation, destruction of fragile ecosystems, and social and cultural conflict, undermining the basis of tourism. Therefore, considering that natural forests constitute 8.7% of the national territory, conservation continues to play a crucial role in the country’s development.

Eleventh Annual Kwita Izina 2015

On 5th September, 2015, the Rwanda Development Board hosted the eleventh Kwita Izina, naming 24 baby gorillas, the newest arrivals born after last year’s ceremony.

This year’s Kwita Izina will take place as we embark on carrying out another g eneral census of the gorilla population in the Virunga Massif following the one that was carried out in 2010. In 2010, the gorilla population registered a 26,3% growth in a period of 7 years from 2003.

The theme for Kwita Izina 2015 is conserving now and for the future

The private sector has explored expansive business opportunities around conservation efforts that have been harnessed into ongoing profitable and viable business ventures. As a result, the tourism sector has registered continued growth through attracting international hospitality brands and businesses .

Since 2007, tourism has been the leading sector in foreign exchange earnings for the country. The objective is to grow tourism revenues by 25% per annum as projected in the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy 2.