CNOOC awards Hoima and Kikuube students with USD 14,000

KIKUUBE – At least USD 14,000 (Shs.49,500,000 million) has been given out to students from Hoima, Kikuube districts and Hoima City who excelled in last year’s national examinations.

The money was given out by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Uganda, one of the companies involved in the exploration of oil in the Albertine Graben.

CNOOC is taking the Kingfisher oil field in Buhuka parish Kyangwali sub-county in Kikuube district onshore of Lake Albert.

Kingfisher field development area is spread over approximately 344kms in the Lake Albert Rift Basin in western Uganda.

The oil field is situated on the eastern bank of Lake Albert, which acts as a border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It was discovered by the Kingfisher-1 wildcat well in 2006.

The funding will go to 180 pupils and students from the three local governments selected by the offices of the District Education Officers (DEOs) based on the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) results released early this year.

This is part of a prize codenamed the CNOOC Best Performers Award, introduced in 2012 to primarily encourage better performance in Hoima, Kikuube districts and Hoima city.

The money was received by the Education department of the respective local governments who will in turn give it to the beneficiary students.

CNOOC Uganda Corporate Affairs Advisor, Alan Zhanga said, CNOOC is committed to improving education standards and building a cordial relationship with the communities in their areas of operations.

However, he challenged the communities in the region to get prepared by educating their children and engaging in production so as to be able to benefit from the oil and gas industry.

He noted that the sector is going to provide a lot of opportunities which will require skilled personnel and quality supply of goods and services.

Johnson Kusiime Baigana, the Hoima City Principal Education Officer applauded CNOOC Uganda for the support and advised the beneficiaries to use the money for the right purpose.

He explained that sometimes parents grab the money from the beneficiaries for their personal interests such as alcoholism and other domestic works.

However, he also demanded CNOOC to change the policy of awarding the students to see that even the students from the government schools benefit from the initiative.

“All these awards have gone to students from private schools because they consider students who performed 100% and sometimes all these students are from rich families, if they change this policy, Universal Primary Education (UPE) students from poor families who perform well will also have a chance of benefiting from the initiative.”

The Kikuube district Vice Chairperson, Opio Vincent commended CNOOC for the awards adding that the initiative is contributing to the district’s effort towards promoting the education sector in the area.

He however said, the education system in the district is facing several challenges such as inadequate staff quarters, class room structures and staffing among others and appealed to development partners such as CNOOC to offer support to the district to address such challenges.

Brian Kaboyo, the Hoima City Mayor, was optimistic that the awards will encourage students to double their effort in studying and this will contribute to the improvement of performance in schools.

https://thecooperator.news/ministry-of-education-investigates-alleged-corruption-at-gulu-college-of-health-sciences/

He added that the awards are a motivation to the students adding that the element of motivation of the learners is still lacking adding that such challenges affect the performance of students and pupils mostly in the government schools.

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East Kyoga police investigate fraud of Shs100 million

EAST KYOGA – East Kyoga Police are investigating a fraud case in which Savannah Motors, defrauded locals in Teso sub-region of more than Shs 100 million.

The East Kyoga Police Spokesman, Oscar Ageca said, more than 128 people have been recorded as the aggrieved but said they are still receiving more complaints.

“The entire Teso region is affected because they put announcements on local radios inviting people who are willing to register. We have so far opened general inquiries into this matter,” Ageca said.

It’s alleged that Savannah Motors under the purported management of one, Johnson Labati of Sune parish within Budaka district, signed client agreements with various individuals within Teso sub-region to supply them with Bajaj motorcycles upon payments of prescribed fees to Savannah Motors.

The payment method was by way of instalment by the clients of a weekly sum of Shs 62,000 or Shs 250,000 monthly.

“In the alternative, a monthly payment of Shs 250,000 until one makes a total sum of Shs.6m which sum was to allow for full ownership of the motorcycle,” Ageca explained.

According to the agreement, the clients were to pay in instalments of Shs 62,500 weekly and Shs 250,000 monthly to make a total sum of Shs 6,000,000 for one to own a motorcycle permanently.

The motorcycles were to be delivered to clients on or before October 4th,2021, but the beneficiaries were shocked to find the offices located in Soroti City at Old Mbale road, opposite Soroti Municipal Secondary school closed.

After finding the offices closed, the irate locals stormed the office of the Resident City Commissioner (RCC), Soroti City seeking clarification on the whereabouts of the Directors of Savannah Motors.

Francis Eseru, one of the victims, from Kapir sub-county in Ngora district said, he paid Shs 500,000 to the company with all the necessary credentials and was promised to get the motorcycle October 4th ,2021 but he was welcomed with three big padlocks on the doors of Savannah Motors.

He said that he tried calling the numbers in the company’s advertisement vouchers 03933248465 and 0776001597, but unfortunately, they were all not available.

Eseru, a father of three children said he got a loan from one of the village saving associations which he paid to Savana Motors as a commitment fee hoping that he would get the motorcycle as promised, little did he know that he had paid money to conmen.

Martin Akol, of Pamba ward in Soroti City West, said that most people were convinced to believe that the company was genuine since they were moving with the Chairman boda-boda riders in Soroti, Richard Ochuli.

He blamed the leaders for allowing Savana Motors to operate in the city without undertaking ground checks to find out their validity.

“I’m totally disappointed with the leaders because they are the ones who gave these Savana Motors operating licenses,” Akol said.

When contacted for a comment Richard Ochuli, the Chairperson boda-boda riders in Soroti said that the company had all the documents indicating that they were fully registered and licensed to do the business in Soroti.

“The information also reached him through the boda-boda riders who sought clarification from him about the company,” he explained.

Oculi added that he went to the company’s office where he was given the certificate of registration and the trading license issued by Soroti City West division authorities which made him believe the company was real.

Meanwhile, Regina Akello, the Acting Assistant Town Clerk, Soroti City West said, they issued a trading license to Savana Motors after they presented all the requirements needed for one to qualify to get a license to operate business in the area.

However, ASP Oscar Gregory Ageca said, the police has opened an inquiry into the matter at Soroti Central Police Station under file GEF: 29/2021.

According to Ageca, the fraudsters shall be identified and held accountable.

https://thecooperator.news/businessman-arrested-for-oil-roads-fuel-theft/

“The police with sister security agencies shall continue to zealously investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of this scheme” he said.

The regional police mouthpiece revealed that the Uganda Police is committed to protecting the citizenry from being brazenly preyed on and victimized by fraud and abuse.

Ageca however urged for calm as police investigates the matter, calling on any person with information regarding the whereabouts of Labati Johnson, Bob Naganda and one only identified as Anyipo to call police Toll free lines 999 or 112 to be connected with investigators to aid in the matter’s investigation and prosecution.

This is not the first time the people of Teso sub-county are being duped by conmen .In 2019, close to Shs.1b was lost to another online company called E-coin and the same year, another company promising people motorcycles also fleeced people of millions of shillings.

Unfortunately, nobody was prosecuted over the past incidents and is the reason the current victims have little hope of recovering their hard-earned cash.

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The end of China’s runaway growth

Decades of double-digit growth have produced five problems that Chinese leader Xi Jinping hopes to correct with his “New Development Concept.” Will it work?

CHINA – Two weeks ago, the concourse outside Evergrande’s glossy headquarters in Shenzhen was thronged by homebuyers, unpaid contractors, and investors chanting what has now become a slogan of China’s debt-saddled, post-reform economy: “Give back our money.” For the past few weeks, Evergrande and its debts have been treated like a fuse for a global crisis — the Chinese “Lehman Brothers.” That analogy is flawed. Evergrande is not like Lehman, said Phil Groves, a distressed debt expert and the president of DAC Management, because Evergrande has physical assets that can be dispersed in the event of a default. “For Lehman, it took years and years and still no one actually knew what the hell they owned, what their exposure was, or how many derivatives they had,” he told me.

Loans to real estate developers are heavily collateralized precisely to hedge against such scenarios. “If Evergrande was liquidated tomorrow,” Dinny McMahon, the author of China’s Great Wall of Debt, told me, “the main lenders — the banks and the trust companies — would get all their money back.” The company, the experts predict, will likely undergo a controlled restructuring. The most likely scenario, which happened with Anbang Insurance Group, HNA Group, and Baoshang Bank, is that those of political importance will survive, foreign investors will take a hit, and top executives might face jail time.

“By allowing Evergrande to default, that is the start of a process (in) which you could only imagine that the authorities will be incredibly hands-on,” said McMahon.

Evergrande is not a trigger of calamity, but it is an externality: a sign that the engine of China’s decades-long growth has sputtered, its warning lights flashing for the world to see. Driving across China, you can tell something is not quite right: empty apartment towers fill the expanse between cities; factories lie idle, and real estate prices are prohibitively high. These are not, contrary to the image China presents, signs of a prosperous and strong nation. They are indicators of a country that is registering the weight of an over-leveraged economy.

Across China’s cities, youths are restless, angry, and involuted, with the burdens of career, parental care, and housing wearing away their hopes for the future. In rural areas, China’s migrant workers are at the edge of a tectonic transition that could leave them jobless. All the while, China’s elites like Evergrande founder Xǔ Jiāyìn 许家印 still seem to thrive on borrowing and political connections.

“Between the feeling of individual failure and the conspicuous display of national prosperity lies an unbridgeable chasm,” wrote the science-fiction writer Chén Qiūfān 陈楸帆. (Last week, Kangning Hospital, China’s largest psych ward, announced plans for an IPO in Shenzhen on the back of soaring demand for mental health services.)

Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 has made it his mission to steer a new course, but the road map for his leftward pivot is decades old. Back in 2007, the premier Wēn Jiābǎo 温家宝 had called the Chinese economy “unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated, and ultimately unsustainable.” Five years later, the political commentator Dèng Yùwén 邓聿文 published “The Ten Grave Problems” (十大问题 shí dà wèntí), a list of 10 socioeconomic issues left behind by Wen’s administration. ​​

Those points — including inadequate economic restructuring, rampant wealth inequality, environmental degradation, and unstable supply chains — are the moral antecedents to the “Red New Deal.” Xi’s attack on big business is about power, but it is also — as seen in the image of the Evergrande concourse — a rebuke of the China that his predecessors, in concert with developers like Xu, helped forge: a country of unpaid debts, empty lofts, and thwarted dreams.

In an important speech (in Chinese) at the Fifth Plenum last fall, Xi emphasized the need to implement a “New Development Concept,” one that can separate “high-quality growth” from “unbalanced” growth. The recent flurry of crackdowns is an attempt to address the various symptoms of an economic growth model nearing its final breath. Here are five of Xi’s challenges:

  1. Debt

“Debt has become the motor at the core of Chinese growth,” wrote McMahon in China’s Great Wall of Debt. After the global financial crisis, China responded with a 4 trillion yuan ($564 billion) stimulus package — 10 times larger as a percentage of GDP than the U.S. stimulus. At the time, China’s debt-to-GDP ratio was 160 percent and local government debt stood at $1.1 trillion in 2010.

These were “still at a range that we could manage,” Wēn Jiābǎo 温家宝 told CNN, “but it is important that we appropriately handle this matter.” In 2016, China’s official debt-to-GDP ratio ballooned to 260 percent. Local government debt reached nearly $4 trillion in 2020.

“Experience shows that when a country accumulates too much debt relative to the size of its economy too quickly, a crisis typically follows,” warned McMahon.

Real estate, which constitutes 40 percent of all bank loans, epitomizes the debt problem. For decades, property developers raised debts through unregulated channels known as “shadow banking” to finance massive construction booms. Families funneled their savings into real estate to get in on the action. Speculative buyers bought up houses with abandon, leaving one-fifth of China’s total housing stock in big cities empty. But the build, build, build days have reached their natural limit. In August, 15 half-built apartment towers in the southwestern city of Kunming were reduced to rubble after developers ran out of cash and abandoned the project.

A centerpiece of Xi’s new development philosophy is an emphasis on “innovative growth drivers” and the “real economy.” As such, regulators have stepped up to rein in the shadow-banking sector, and placed caps on reckless borrowing and speculation.

The “three red lines” policy in August, which limited borrowing for property developers, had immediate consequences: Evergrande had run afoul of all three lines, and of the country’s 15 biggest developers, only one was in full compliance. But Beijing is prepared for a painful reckoning now in order to nurse the sector back to health. At a work meeting held by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) last week, regulators vowed to quit using real estate as “a short-term tool to stimulate the economy” and to “implement long-term approaches for the property market.”

  1. Corruption and rampant inequality

The PBOC announcement is welcome news for Yuen Yuen Ang, a political scientist at the University of Michigan and the author of China’s Gilded Age. A primary feature of China’s dizzying rise, she argues, is the marriage between debt-fueled growth, especially in the property sectors, and rampant inequality, a dynamic she calls “crony capitalism.” “Crony capitalism” is built on a scaffold of corruption, a venal relationship between robber baron capitalists and politicians. For decades, those connections acted like an economic steroid, incentivizing politicians to assist developer friends to execute ambitious building projects. But this also funneled wealth to China’s elites. In 2012, China’s Gini coefficient, the standard measure of income inequality, surpassed America’s.

Ang compares China’s current predicament with the end of the American Gilded Age in the late 19th century, when public backlash against corruption triggered economic and social reforms that ushered in the Progressive Era. On this rubric, Xi Jinping’s most recent calls for “common prosperity” have their roots in the anti-corruption and anti-poverty campaigns of a decade prior. “In the last two months, Western investors have abruptly awoken to Xi’s calls for ‘common prosperity,’” Ang told me. “But Xi’s socialist mission actually began in 2012, when he vowed to eliminate rural poverty and simultaneously launched the largest anti-corruption drive in the CPC’s history.” All of these, Ang says, are attempts to rectify China’s own Gilded Age.

  1. Empty factories

The decadence among China’s wealthiest coincides with a looming peril for China’s poorest. Like the departure of manufacturing jobs from the U.S., China has seen a mass exodus of low-wage manufacturing jobs to South Asian countries. China’s latest three-child policy is, in part, a corrective to the decline of surplus rural labor, which drove up wages and pushed factories to seek cheaper labor overseas.

In the past decade, hundreds of thousands of jobs from conglomerates such as Apple, Nike, and Samsung migrated from China to Vietnam, whose workers are generally seven years younger, on average, and twice as cheap.

Labor-market mismatches are not uncommon among developing countries, and many economies, including South Korea, Taiwan, and Ireland, have navigated them in the past, a problem known as the “middle-income trap.”

Scott Rozelle, a professor at Stanford and the author of Invisible China, argues that a common feature of the “middle-income trap” is the disparity between the fast pace of economic growth and the slow buildup of education: In 2015, 70 percent of China’s working-age adults were high school dropouts. Whether migrant workers have the skills to help China transition from a manufacturing hub to a high-income economy depends on bringing those numbers down. For Rozelle, China’s migrant worker predicament amounts to a crisis in human capital: “The key to avoiding the trap is for the top levels of government to give priority to rapidly expanding education for the entire population,” he writes.

In the early 2000s, China’s leaders took action. In 2006, the government made public schooling free and mandatory from grades one through nine for every child in the country.

By 2010, middle school attendance was nearly universal, compared with only 60 percent 20 years earlier. In 2017, Xi Jinping pledged to go a notch further, launching a national effort (in Chinese) to universalize high school education by 2020. The “New Development Concept” does not explicitly address education, but recent regulations of the private education sector appear to be imperfect attempts at expanding public education access.

  1. Supply chain instability

Although China brought its initial outbreak of COVID-19 under control as early as last March, its manufacturers continue to bear the costs of the pandemic’s disruption to global shipping.

In a visit to factories in Zhejiang last year, Xi remarked on how “many companies were forced to suspend operations” and made his call for a new development model. “I realized just how much things had changed,” he said in his speech at the Fifth Plenum. “The environments and conditions that had facilitated large-scale imports and exports were no longer in place.”

As a major manufacturing hub for the world, China is especially vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. Rising tensions with the U.S., along with subsequent tariffs and export bans, have also created a new global environment where many key technology components can suddenly become difficult to procure.

At the May 2020 Politburo meeting [in Chinese], China’s leaders formulated the strategy of “dual circulation” (双循环), which is evidently another component of the New Development Concept. The strategy aims to bolster domestic demand in order to allow China’s economy to be more self-sufficient and resilient to external turbulence by extension.

  1. The environment

To glimpse the environmental costs of China’s decades-long growth, one only need a visit to Baogang Tailings Dam in Inner Mongolia, widely dubbed the “world’s dystopian lake” due to its role as a waste bin for China’s rare earths industry, which makes up about 80 percent of the world market.

From 1990 to 1997, the cancer mortality rate in the surrounding mining districts rose 50 percent and the three leading causes of death in the area were cancer, unspecified poisoning and accidents, and infant mortality. Air pollution, water pollution, and mismanaged packaging waste pose significant health risks to Chinese citizens and have historically been a source of social unrest.

As a result, “green development” is now a core component of Xi Jinping’s “New Development Concept.” In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 21, he promised to end funding for coal-fired power plants outside of China. Satellite imagery of the Tailings Dam in Inner Mongolia suggests the government has begun to drain it.

“When I was living in China in the early to mid-2000s, the way officials and planners talked about solutions [was] as if you had to pollute first and clean up later,” said Julie Klinger, the author of Rare Earth Frontiers. “Now cleanup time has come.” The cleanup has come for plastic waste as well: A sweeping regulation — what state media has called the “strictest plastic ban” in history — began last September, albeit with mixed results. Most of all, Xi is known for his ambitious plan to peak emissions by 2030 and go carbon neutral by 2060.

The time is now

Growth has been a paramount priority for the Communist Party since the Third Plenum of 1978, when China officially adopted Dèng Xiǎopíng’s 邓小平reform and open policy.

But as Wen and Deng Yuwen’s comments reveal, the antithetical, ultra-leftist creed never vanishes. It brews under the surface and erupts occasionally in seething, impassioned diatribes, only to retreat back into the shadows.

But as the five challenges outlined above festered, China’s prior leaders swept them under the rug with stopgap solutions. Meanwhile, the growth imperative has lost all of its original sheen. From the eradication of poverty to the triumphalism of a vanquished pandemic, China is ostensibly at its strongest point in modern history — it is, in some ways, already grown. The allure of short-term growth, that quick-fix-mentality attributable to a scrappy, up-and-coming nation, is gone.

“We are being affected by both ‘Right’ and ‘Left’ tendencies,” Deng acknowledged during his renowned Southern Tour in 1992. “But it is the ‘Left’ tendencies that have the deepest roots.”

After four decades of miraculous growth at the expense of a compromised socialism, those roots have finally borne fruit.

https://thecooperator.news/african-countries-tipped-on-untapped-potential-of-creative-and-cultural-industries/

Chang Che is SupChina’s Business & Technology staff writer. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Nikkei Asia, and The LA Review of Books. You can follow him on Twitter at @changxche.

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Minister urges oil companies to expedite the signing of the Final Investment Decision (FID) on oil and gas

KIKUUBE – The State Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Peter Aimat Lokeris has called on oil companies operating in the Albertine grabben to expedite the process of signing Final Investment Decision (FID) to allow the production of oil.

FID is an agreement that International Oil Companies (IOCs) and the government of Uganda through the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) mutually agree to the development of the oil fields. The project execution phase should commence shortly after FID with significant expenditure on building the production facilities.

There has been negotiation between the government and oil companies such as Total Energies together with Joint Venture Partners,like China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to sign the FID agreement but up now, it has not been signed.

Speaking during an engagement with CNOOC officials and parliament committee on environment and natural resources in Buhuka parish in Kyangwali sub-county Kikuube district, Lokeris said, that government is ready to sign the FID and was concerned that the oil companies were delaying. The Parliamentary committees have been in Bunyoro region for four days monitoring the progress of oil activities.

He noted that the oil and gas sector is facing competing challenges adding that currently the world is inventing other sources of energy which are environmental friendly.

The minister explained that there is a fear that in the next 20 years, the prices of oil might go down which may make the government to lose money which is investing in the industry.

He says that there is a need for oil companies to take a decision and finalize with the FID to allow the oil and gas production to kick start so that the country can produce the oil when it still has a great market.

Asinasi Nyakato, the Hoima city Woman MP and shadow Minister on environment and natural resources says, as the government moves to the oil and gas production phase, there are some issues that need to be addressed if the sector is to benefit Ugandans.

She noted that during their tour, they discovered that the issue of local content is a serious concern for the oil companies in the ongoing oil and gas activities.

https://thecooperator.news/oil-and-gas-sector-tickle-tycoons-to-form-association/

She added that they also discovered that compensation of people affected by oil activities have not been handled well as many continue to complain of unfair and delayed compensation.

Emily Kugonza, the environment and natural resources committee, vice chairperson called for more sensitization of the public about the industry to prepare them to benefit from sector.

Kugonza, who is also the member of parliament, Buyaja East in Kibaale district, explained that the ongoing oil activities such as the construction of an airport, refinery, oil roads oil pipeline in the region are some of the opportunities that would benefit the local people in the region but most of them lack information on how they can tap in the oil and gas opportunities

Cui Yujun the CNOOC Uganda, Vice President said the company is committed to producing the first drop of oil as soon as possible.

He explained that company is ready to deliver the project at the same time with Total Energies’ Tilenga project located in Bulisa district.

Total Energies plans to have the first oil production by 2025. There was no clarity on when the companies would announce the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the oil development projects.

However, a source close to the company and the Energy Ministry said, CNOOC may not offer its Final Investment Decision (FID) soon as anticipated adding that the company is reluctant as it asks the government to full fill certain conditions for the FID to be announced.

The committee also visited Hoima International Airport (HIA) in Kabaale sub-county, Hoima district. The airport is going to facilitate the construction of the oil refinery in Hoima.

The construction works which kicked off in April 2018 after the government acquired a loan of US $309 million (about Shs1.1 trillion) from Standard Chartered Bank and UK Export Finance for the first phase of the project.

Construction works stand at 65% and the airport is expected to be completed by February 2023.

The project is being executed by SBC Uganda Limited-a joint venture company between UK’s Colas Limited and Shikun and Binui namely SBI International Holdings AG.

While addressing the committee members, Amos Muriisa the project Public Relations Officer (PRO) said that project progress would be above 60% but they were interrupted by the Covid-19 Pandemic.

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Umeme tasked on reliable, high-capacity electricity for Acholi sub-region

ACHOLI – Residents and leaders in Acholi sub-region have tasked electricity utility body Umeme, to provide improved high-capacity and reliable electricity to help spur industrialization in the region.

Umeme has in the past three years come under intense pressure from Gulu residents and other districts in Acholi and Lango sub-region.

Thomas Raymond Opira, the LCI Chairperson of Pabo Quarters in Bar dege-Layibi division in Gulu City says, as a result of low capacity and unreliable electricity, many youths who were employed in factories were rendered jobless because the factories opted to close and move to other areas where there’s stable and high-capacity electricity.

According to Opira, unreliable electricity has also led to the increase in petty crimes by the youths because and the City is dark in the night making it easy to avoid being detected, worse still when it rains.

“As local leaders, we are having a lot of security challenges because most of our youths are redundant and jobless because there are no industries to engage them in work. The few that we had left because of inadequate power capacity to run their machines. So Umeme should do us a favor and improve on the capacity of electricity so that we have industries and our youths get employed,” said Opira.

George Ovola Ebola, a resident of Gulu City claims that on several occasions, Umeme has promised to improve on its connectivity especially in the outskirts of Gulu City but in vain.

“If we already have a dam in Aswa supplying us, why should we wait for Karuma? Which power are we using for production? If just a maize mill is failing, then which other productive power will help our city become industrialized?” argued Ovola.

Francis Ocakacon, a resident of Kitgum Municipality claims that Umeme is operating only at 30% and in the town center only. Ocakacon says, that in the peri urban centers such as, Atanga East, Lemu ward, Pandwong ward among others, there is no electricity connection.

According to Ocakacon, the capacity of the electricity they receive, besides being unreliable, is very low.

Andrew Onyuk, the Omoro Resident District Commissioner (RDC) says, that in the trading centers of Palenga and Opit, the transformers in the area have broken down and have not been repaired for more than 2 months.

According to Onyuk, the electricity challenges in the region have heavily impacted on the implementation of industrialization of the region which is in the NRM government`s manifesto.

“Power is the engine of social economic transformation and we don’t have adequate power, yet we know that the generation of power in the country have increased. The dream of rural electrification will not have meaning if there’s no adequate supply of power. So let the people have power so that we have change and socio-economic transformation in our community,” notes Onyuk.

Jillian Akulu, the Oyam Resident District Commissioner (RDC) says, the whole district has only one transformer which is being shared with Iceme ginnery and most times when the ginnery is operating, the district is cut off from electricity because of the low capacity.

According to Akulu, most of the time the district staff are forced to use generators which are unreliable and very costly hence affecting work output.

Alfred Okwonga, the Mayor, Gulu City says, the current electricity connection is at 21.7% leaving several villages without electricity. Okwonga further says, even before Gulu was elevated to a city status, the coverage was not to 100% besides being just 54 square kilometers; now it has expanded to 225 square kilometers currently with the annexation of other parishes.

Okwonga says that areas such as Cubu, Vanguard, Rom, Aywee, Kanyagoga A and B, Lacor among others are not connected.

“The city needs at least 20 transformers to improve the connectivity of electricity for industrial and household use,” says Okwonga.

“This community in Gulu City really has been missing services from Umeme for quite a long time and it has disadvantaged our community. This is eminent with the recent UBOS report which says, the Acholi community is the poorest community in the country,” notes Okwonga.

Celestine Babungi, the Managing Director, Umeme Uganda Limited says, they invested more than Shs.17 billion to improve the capacity and reliability of electricity in the region. He says, they have doubled the load capacity of electricity in the Gulu substation to 10 MVA from 5 MVA some three years ago, and 40 MVA in Lira from 20 MVA in the same period of time.

“Those investments we have made in the interim have greatly improved supply capacity and reliability in the area. We committed to strategic interventions, among them is linking Aswa dam to Gulu such that even if the Lira line goes off, we have power supply from within the region, the upgrade of the power substations, have all been done and are very visible,” says Babungi

Babungi, who was responding to concerns during a stakeholder meeting at Bomah Hotel in Gulu City says, they have completed the upgrade of the Gulu power sub-station in Layibi, connected to the Aswa Dam as they wait for the completion of the Karuma power dam which will see the entire greater northern Uganda connected to a reliable high grid electricity by end of next year.

He however blames the recent power outages on vandalism of transformers, theft of conductors and support wires, fire outbreaks and rotting of poles especially during rainy seasons.

According to Babungi, they will install 25 transformers for Gulu City with 10 to be installed before the end of this year.

In the recently concluded investors forum, Acholi leaders and investors demanded that the sub-region be included in the Karuma transmission line on grounds that the region has been suffering with the challenges of low capacity and unreliable power supply for years.

https://thecooperator.news/acholi-leaders-question-the-contribution-of-investors-in-community-empowerment/

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National Coffee Act inspires debate on new laws on registration of farmers

UGANDA – The Executive Director, Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), Dr Emmanuel Lyamulemye, has revealed that Clause 26 of the National Coffee Act has inspired debates on a new law on farmers’ registration.

This comes after President Museveni assented to the National Coffee Act (NCA) August 13th, 2021 & September 13th, 2021.

It was later gazzeted under Supplement Act No. 17 changing to a new face of the coffee sector in Uganda.

This was during the virtual seminar organized by Uganda Agricultural Economics Association (UAEA) convened by the Department of Agribusiness and Natural Resource Economics, Makerere University.

According to Associate Prof. Jackline Bonabana, the seminar which was themed, “How the National Coffee Act 2021 is envisioned to transform the Ugandan Coffee Industry” was focused on making an analysis on gaps and gains entrenched within the new coffee law.

Lyamulemye said, the president first bounced the new law in December 2020 to make some reviews on some of the specific clauses such as the appointment of the board, registration of coffee farmers and the appointment of UCDA’s Managing Director.

Lyamulumye who could not hide the joy for the achievement he has attained for the authority, welcomed the new law saying that the National Coffee Act 2021 will repeal and replace 1991 UCDA Act which had clauses that had been over taken by events.

“I am very privileged to be presenting to you this important law in the history of Uganda but I must say this is one of the most debated bills in the recent times because in August it was approved by parliament and it went to the president to assent but in December, it was returned for review of some specific clauses,” Lyamulumye explained.

He says, the new law alludes to neighboring countries that established a National Coffee Registry for farmers and other value chain actors for the protection of the quality and standards of coffee in the export market and to increase coffee prices that benefit a farmer.

“All our neighboring countries have a farmer registry, and for the case of Kenya, their National Coffee Act of 2001 is very comprehensive on farmers’ registration. Tanzania’s coffee law of 2003 talks about farmers registration; in Ethiopia, their law which takes us back to 1994 also talks about farmers registration. So, in order to ensure quality, this is one of the clauses we thought of harmonizing our laws with other coffee producers.” Lyamulemye emphasized.

Lyamulemye confirmed that farmer registration will be free of charge to any farmer who grows coffee for the inspirations of coffee farmers’ traceability.

“A person shall be registered only if at the time of registration, he is growing coffee. I would like to stress that there will be no fees to be charged on registration of farmers and no consequential financial obligations whether taxation or indirect cash payments,” said Lyamulemye

He adds that the new law provides for the continuity of UCDA as a regulator in the coffee sub-sector.

“The 2021 National Coffee Act also provides the regulation of all, on and off farm activities in the coffee value chain, registration of coffee value chain actors, grading of coffee, coffee value addition and domestic coffee consumption among others,” explained Lyamulumye.

“The Coffee Act enacted in 1991 looked at pre-export but over time it was seen that coffee quality is actually affected from the farm, a reason as to why the National Coffee Act 2021 is looking at the comprehensive value chain starting from the farm including export and also consumption of coffee,” Lyamulemye explained.

Speaking during the discussion, Martin Fowler, an Agriculture Economist expressed worry to the farmers’ confidential data provided to UCDA.

“The whole confidentiality of this data to me is a worrying aspect, like who is going to have access to this data? I think we need to be a little bit careful about the use of this data because some farmers providing information need to know that it’s going to be used by UCDA alone but not to be used for other things,” Fowler said.

He adds that Clause 32 of the Coffee Act does not specify how often the farmers will register for coffee dealers’ licenses.

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“The issue of registration goes on to licensing and I know some of these have already got licenses and others are going to be licensed but the law is not clear how often; whether its annual or life time registration,” Fowler emphasized.

Joseph Nkandu, Executive Director, National Union of Coffee Agribusiness (NUCAFE), also embraced the enabling law claiming that it has been overdue to guarantee coffee quality in Uganda.

He however, encouraged UCDA to work with the private sector and other agencies for effective implementation of the amended National Coffee Act 2021.

“We need to ensure that we take a systematic change in our approach, so that we are able to achieve what we want. What will be most important at the end is implementation which cannot only be done by one entity,” Nkandu advised

UCDA is a government agency mandated to promote and oversee the development of the entire coffee industry through research, quality assurance and improved marketing.

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Thai taxi cooperatives turn the rooftops of idle cabs into mini gardens

BANGKOK (AP) — Taxi fleets in Thailand are giving new meaning to the term “rooftop garden” as they utilize the roofs of cabs idled by the Coronavirus crisis to serve as small vegetable plots.

Workers from two taxi cooperatives assembled the miniature gardens this week using black plastic garbage bags stretched across bamboo frames. On top, they added soil in which a variety of crops, including tomatoes, cucumbers and string beans, were planted.

The result looks more like an eye-grabbing art installation than a car park, and that’s partly the point: to draw attention to the plight of taxi drivers and operators who have been badly hit by Coronavirus lockdown measures.

The Ratchapruk and Bovorn Taxi cooperatives now have just 500 cars left plying Bangkok’s streets, with 2,500 sitting idle at a number of city sites, according to 54-year-old executive Thapakorn Assawalertkul.

“With the capital’s streets deathly quiet until recently, there’s been too much competition for too few fares, resulting in a fall in drivers’ incomes. Many now can’t afford the daily payments on the vehicles, even after the charge was halved to 300 baht ($9.09),” Thapakorn said. So they have walked away, leaving the cars in long, silent rows.”

“Some drivers surrendered their cars and returned to their homes in rural areas when the pandemic first hit last year because they were so scared,” he said. “More gave up and returned their cars during the second wave.”

“Some left their cars at places like gas stations and called us to pick the cars up,” he recalled.

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“With new surges of the virus this year, the taxi cooperatives were “completely knocked out,” as thousands of cars were given up by their drivers,” he said.

Thailand’s new infections have ranged just under 15,000 in recent days after peaking above 23,400 in mid-August. The government hopes the country is easing out of this wave, which has been the deadliest so far, accounting for 97% of Thailand’s total cases and more than 99% of its deaths. In total, Thailand has confirmed 1.4 million cases and over 14,000 deaths.

“The situation has left the taxi companies in financial peril, struggling to repay loans on the purchase of their fleets. Ratchapruk and Bovorn taxi cooperatives owe around 2 billion baht ($60.8 million),” Thapakorn said. “The government has so far not offered any direct financial support.”

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Lack of beds, Ambulance crippling maternal services in Anaka General Hospital

NWOYA – Anaka General Hospital in Nwoya district is struggling with lack of delivery beds in its maternity ward. Currently, the hospital only has 2 delivery beds with a 200 monthly delivery and an average of 8 deliveries a daily.

Jolly Joe Lapat, the Hospital Administrator, Anaka General Hospital says, the challenge of delivery beds has persisted for close to two years now.

He notes that they have also been struggling with Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) because there’s no specific special delivery bed for them, a factor which he says has frustrated many expectant mothers from going for their deliveries at the facility.

“We only have two delivery beds at the maternity ward, no special bed for expectant mothers, yet we have on average of 8 deliveries daily, meaning the six or so have to deliver on the floors, which is disturbing especially at a general hospital,” Lapat observes.

According to Lapat, they need at least 200 beds at the maternity ward to help with deliveries, gynaecological issues among others.

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Lapat further notes that, their referral system has also been crippled by the lack of sound and effective ambulances. Currently, Nwoya district has only one ambulance which is also in a poor mechanical condition.

“We have a big challenge with referrals because the whole district has only one ambulance which should respond to accidents, complications and other emergencies which sometimes occur at the same time making it so difficult. The only ambulance that we have is also under a very dangerous mechanical condition,” Lapat notes.

Judith Acan Peace, the Nwoya district Woman MP says, the lack of facilities is not only affecting the general hospital, but also other facilities at Koch Lii and Lungulu don’t have lights, forcing the health workers to use their torches during delivery on the floor because they don’t have delivery beds.

“Most of our facilities don’t have the basic equipment like beds, lights among others which has really affected the turn up of people in accessing services in the various health centers and the general hospital,” Acan says.

According to Acan, several of the pregnant mothers have had a bad experience delivering at the general hospital. The various health facilities have contacted her seeking financial support to transport them to neighboring Gulu City’s, St Mary’s Hospital Lacor and Gulu Regional Referral Hospital (GRRH). She notes that she has also recently donated an ambulance to the district to help bridge the gap which is not efficient.

“I have received several calls from people within the district seeking for financial and logistical support to take especially the pregnant women to hospitals in Gulu City because our people have lost trust and are not receiving the desired health services in our facilities. I have taken it upon myself to lobby to well-wishers and also the government so that the condition in our facilities is improved. We don’t want to see our mothers opting for traditional birth attendants because they are more accessible and risk their lives and their babies at the end,” says Acan.

Janet Oola, the Nwoya District Health Officer (DHO) says they have reported the matter to the health ministry but have not received any response. Efforts to reach Minister of Health’s, Jane Ruth Aceng or Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Public Relations Officer (PRO), Ministry of Health were all futile as none of them responded to our numerous phone calls.

Nwoya district has a population projection of 236,000 with 1 general hospital, 11 health centers including IIs and IIIs.

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Heavy downpour kills one, properties worth millions destroyed in Masindi

MASINDI – A 32-year-old woman has died after being washed away by running water as a result of a heavy downpour in Kimina village, Kiruli sub-county, Masindi district.

The incident occurred during this morning’s heavy downpour and the deceased has been identified as Roselino Amongito.

James Rubanga, the area LC1 Chairperson told theCooperator that Amongito was washing clothes near a stream when the incident happened.

Rubanga explains that during the heavy downpour, running water carried away some of the clothes into the stream and in the process of getting them back, Amongito fell into the stream that washed her away.

Rubanga adds that the residents who saw Amongito being swept by the water informed him and the other residents who later mounted a search for her and later found her body trapped by a tree about a kilometer from the point where she was washing from.

Rubanga added that police from Pakanyi post reached the scene after they had retrieved the body from the water and recorded statements before allowing the relatives to bury her body.

The Chairperson revealed that arrangements were on going to make arrangements for her burial.

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According to Rubanga, Amongito has left behind six children including a seven-month-old baby.

The Chairperson, Pakanyi sub-county, Frank Asiimwe confirmed the reports saying he received information about it and he also informed police that went to the scene.

Properties destroyed

Muhammad Lukumu, a youth leader from the same sub-county said, crops like maize, beans, sugar cane, ground nuts among others were all swept away.

“We don’t know whether we shall have what to eat in the coming months because everything was destroyed. As I am talking, some houses are in water,” said Lukumu.

He added that it’s the first time the sub-county is experiencing such an incident.

Geoffrey Bigabwa, the district Councillor Kiruli sub-county told theCooperator that the whole district may be affected because the sub-county acts as a food basket for Masindi.

“It’s unbelievable, I have lost my all my three acres of maize and another one acre of beans. I am not going to get anything; everything has been washed away,” said Gerald Barungi a farmer in Kimina village in Kiruli sub-county.

The affected people cried out to the government to provide them with relief food to enable them have what to eat.

By the time of filing the story, the district disaster committee had not yet gone to the ground to assess the situation.

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Former street children graduate in vocational training skills

GULU – A total of 35 former street children picked from the streets of Gulu City have graduated in various vocational training skills.

The two-year course was sponsored by Favour of God Ministries, a faith-based organization working in the greater northern Uganda and South Sudan.

Mike Sabiiti, the Head of Department of GIFT, the project under which the former street youths were trained in the various vocational training skills says, most times the society castigates the street children for their behaviors and illegal practices. Sabiiti says, the youths did not choose to end up on the streets but because of life’s challenge and situations.

Sabiiti blames the society for the unending experiences of street children because most of them are reluctant to share the little they have.

According to Sabiiti, besides the vocational training skills which include; motor vehicle mechanics, tailoring and designing, hair dressing, fisheries, the youths were also taken through the Bible, daily fellowships, counselling among others to ensure a complete transformation.

Miriam Ogena, the Human Resource Manager, Favour of God Ministries urged the graduands to concentrate, practice and save money from the knowledge and skills they have attained. They should also focus on building their faith and not go into the temptation of the worldly joys.

Terry Goodman, the Deputy Director, Favour of God Ministries says, the graduands have the choice to chose evil or good. Love and discipline are transformational skills but its only God who transformed them.

Phillip Oketkeny, a Board Member and Ministry Counselor, Favour of God Ministries says, the graduands have been thoroughly healed and transformed, he says they will be key in social transformation and sustainability which is a mission of the Ministry.

Oketkeny says, the spiritual and physical transformation the graduands have attained should manifest in the entire community that they will go into.

Testimony

Silindi Aber Ruth, a graduand says, she had lost hope in education and life in general.

She further says, before joining Favour of God Ministry, she was living in a home where orphans were not valued and supported which forced her to elope with a man at a young age. She was mistreated, beaten for asking even for food to eat.

She was abandoned and when she attempted to find solution by going to her uncle who instead asked for sex before helping her.

According to Aber, she at some point wanted to kill her two children so she can hustle for herself.

She was forced to the street, got employed in a bar where she was introduced to an old woman who introduced her to prostitution and conning money from rich men using charms.

She was taught forgiveness for her relatives and certain of a future in tailoring having learnt it for two years.

Kenneth Akena, a graduand in fisheries says he joined the street aged 12 years because his uncle and other relatives disowned him, asking him to look for his family. Currently he is 31 years old.

Akena recalls having eaten chicken intestines to live, collecting scraps before joining drug abusers and eventually becoming a thug.

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“At some point, when we went to steal, all my colleagues ran away and I was arrested and beaten by mob. He only opted out of stealing and joined scrap collecting, but this time in Kampala because there are other older people on the streets in the city.”

Denis Odongpiny, the Resident City Commissioner (RCC) Gulu urged the graduands to be honest, hardworking and determined to succeed as they enter the job world.

Odongpiny says, most times after graduating, most graduands tend to relax and begin complaining of lack of work without looking for work they studied.

“The reason why the Acholi sub-region was recently ranked the poorest is because most of our youths are lazy yet they make unnecessary demands, less we change that, we will not be able to fight poverty,” Odongpiny says.

The training graduands underwent an examination by the Directorate of Industrial Training.

Already, 200 new street children have been enrolled for the same program under Favour of God Ministries.

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