Business managers and leaders who face daunting task in 2015
Friday January 02 2015
The new Commissioner General of Rwanda Revenue Authority Richard Tusabe took the reigns of the tax body almost half way into the fiscal year when he replaced Ben Kagarama.
Mr Tusabe took over the leadership of the revenue authority at a time it was struggling to meet targets. In the first two quarters during his reign, the taxman has continued to record a shortfall in revenue collection.
RRA has been struggling to meet its quarterly targets mainly because of slow economic growth occasioned by declining imports and the impact of aid cut in 2012.
The taxman in the second quarter missed the target by Rwf27 billion for the first nine months of the current fiscal year.
READ: Rwandan taxman faces revenue shortfall due to defaulters
Edigold Monday
She is the managing director of Crane Bank, which is the latest financial institution to enter Rwandan market.
Statistics indicate that Rwanda’s banked population is still less than 25 per cent.
The new bank is joining an industry, which is believed to be competitive and has some of the highest operation costs.
READ: Bad outlook: Banks close year with increased provision for bad loans
With only one branch so far in the city centre, Ms Monday is faced with a task of spreading the new bank’s presence across the country as well as recruiting clients to make profits for shareholders.
Alfah Kadri
The new chief executive of Rwanda Commodities Exchange took over the office mid 2014 after the resignation of the top management.
Last year, the market seemed hesitant to appreciate the transparency the Exchange had brought to market.
In addition, the demand for grains dropped due to lack of quality grains from the East African region.
In 2015, the new CEO will have to work around the clock to attract not only local but also regional investors to boost trading at exchange.
Teddy R.V.S Bhullar
He was appointed managing director of Airtel Rwanda in last year, replacing Marcellin Paluku, who was the first to head Airtel operations in Rwanda.
Prior to his latest appointment in Rwanda, Mr Bhullar was the managing director of Airtel Sierra Leone since the launch of the Airtel Brand in that country in November 2010.
With his vast experience in the telecom industry, he is expected to exert pressure on MTN — the leading telecom in terms of market share as he tries to wrestle and capture significant market share as one of the biggest telecoms in the world.
Hannington Namara
He is the first Rwandan national to head TradeMark East Africa Rwanda office. In particular, he faces a daunting task of ensuring that Rwanda increases exports to the region as currently it remains a net importer.
Moreover, non-tariff barriers remain a key challenge for Rwandan business community doing business in the region.
However, he also took charge at a time the country is under pressure to bridge its trade deficit both within the region and beyond.
The cost of doing business in the country also remains high not only due to high transport costs but high energy costs. This makes it difficult for Rwandan businesses to be competitive in the region.
Celestine Rwabukumba
He has been the head of the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) since its inception more than two years ago.
While he has worked over the years to make RSE attractive to local investors by ensuring that government gives incentives, so far RSE has only managed to attract two local companies — Bralirwa and Bank of Kigali on the equity market.
READ: Rwanda bourse ends year with growth
While RSE has attracted three regional cross listings from Kenya Commercial Bank, Nation Media Group and Uchumi Supermarket on the equity market, trading on the secondary market remains below what is needed to have a vibrant market.