Review: The Rwizi Arch Hotel in Kampala, Uganda.

The Rwizi Arch pub at the underground in the backyard of the hotel

I was privileged to share abode at Rwizi Arch Hotel at Kansanga area, Kampala together with seven journalists from six African countries from 24-29 June this year.

Together with an equal number of local Ugandan journalists we were attending Financial and Economic reporting course from Reuters Foundation.

During the stay we loved staying at the pub in the back of the hotel taking up the backyard space and the underground floor with a capacity to seat close to thirty patrons.

The pub’s atmosphere though set with a outdoor gardens have the ambience of an extension of the hotel’s dining room with the chairs set at a distance on a soft lighting shades for a quite conversation and dating scene but not for the rowdy football watching crowd as experience in Kenya.

To compound the atmosphere further there is no pool table, ballroom lights or the longer counter bar stools making watching a game to be akin to twiddling with a remote control in your sitting room with the children reading in the background and your wife trying to get her sleep, a quite no shouting affair.

But the huge board which projects games and music is a plus for football watching, though the music is pre mixed and not engaging as there is no dance floor without any DJs.

Though the food is sumptuous as the bar shares the kitchen with the hotel, their drinks are expensive. Kenyan Tusker Lager and Tusker Malt, brands at the bar, go for USh4,500 and USh4,000 respectively while Ugandan special Nile Special goes for Ush3,500. Being a teetotaler, for the two games I watched from the pub i settle for Norvida pineapple and a 300ml Stoney which went for Ush3,500 and Ush2,000 respectively.

The bar counter

I realized the prices were high as which forced me to watch German being bundled out of Euro2012 finals by two Mario Balotelli’s first half goals on pubs along the Kabalagala Street wher drinks are Ush500-1,000 cheaper.

Critique:

With the quite atmosphere for conversation the pub is best for a business meeting and dating and you can easily reach the hotel,6Km from the CBD along Kabalagala Street in a 30 min drive.

On the down side, for foreign revelers seeking the feeling of Kampala’s night life the pub isn’t ideal with setting and would recommend the numerous pubs along Kabalagala streets which has several East African universities.

                              ©Manuel Odeny 29 June 2012, Kampala-Uganda

World Bank: Sub-Saharan Africa growth tied to Euro zone crisis

Ahmadou Moustapha Ndiaye, the Uganda WB country manager.

The World Bank’s forecast of 5% growth for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2012 risks being affected by the Euro zone, a senior bank official has said.

WB projections place the developing world, with Sub-Sahara Africa being the main player, at the centre of recovery from the world economic recession.

Last year, 2011, Sub-Saharan Africa had one of the world’s fastest growth rates at 4.7% average, almost back to the region’s performance before the economic crisis time.

Next year the growth is still projected to increase to 5.3%.

This forecast is placed at the risk of persistent risk of financial recession for developed countries especially after Cyprus asked for help from EU which “brings a lot of uncertainty in the air since developing countries are not isolated from the world” Ahmadou Moustapha Ndiaye, the Uganda WB country manager said.

He added that the Euro zone crisis will constrain growth in the developing countries as Euro governments will need to increase taxes and level on public investment to streamline their budget. This will affect the trade infrastructure and reduce foreign aid.

Ndiaye who was speaking to journalists at WB offices in Kampala said the effect will be felt through low remittance by African immigrants back home due to contracting job market and a reduced number of tourists visiting Africa as high income earners will be faced with new taxes.

But the forecast is set to hold steady if the prices of African commodities in the world market grow and investment flows into in new resources and infrastructure like oil drilling, refineries, roads, and ICT.  

Ndiaye points out that Africa can get finance from bilateral development partners to borrow and invest in infrastructure which will set to increase sub-regional trade which reduces their dependency on Euro zone countries and should place more importance on regional integration like EAC.

According to government’s record Kenya is projecting her growth at 5.0% in the 2012/13 financial year on the back of a SH1.459 trillion budget which highly relies on infrastructure development to spur growth.

“The energy, infrastructure and ICT sector leads on government’s expenditure at 24% allocation on account of on-going road and energy projects as the sector is able to sustain development” a PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, analysis points out.

But PwC says this can be challenged by a road maintenance backlog, lack of adequate local construction capacity and delayed uptake of donor funds.

Equally, the country’s budget which relies on 15.4% foreign funding (Sh225.5 billion) from external grants and loan for revenues will be constrained by the Euro zone crisis.

This reliance of sub-Sahara to external grants is what Ndiaye says can be rectified by regional integration and trade.

“Sub regional trade away from Euro-zone can be increased with EAC investing in infrastructure especially in oil exploration and speed up convergence in fiscal policies and the monitory union” he says.

©Manuel Odeny, 29 June 2012 from Reuters Training in Kampala, Uganda