Uganda joins Oil Producers in 2016

Uganda’s finance minister said on Thursday that the country hopes to begin full-scale oil production within two years, but vowed it will not become a petro-state.

Maria Kiwanuka promised that the government would not squander the windfall that will come with the exploration of an estimated 3.5 billion barrels of crude, which could transform the economy.
Speaking at an IMF meeting in Maputo that is plotting “Africa’s rise”, she added that oil would only be one part of a bigger recipe to develop the economy.
“The petroleum sub-sector, however sexy it may be, is only part of the overall economy. Uganda is not Saudi Arabia, it is not Venezuela, we are not even Nigeria.”
Uganda, she said, would remain an agriculture-first economy.
Kiwanuka said the government had already started working to make sure the oil cash will not be siphoned away from the state coffers.
She said a law will come before parliament next month that would form a framework for the sector and would create a single bank account through which oil revenues, taxes and royalties would flow.
“We will not have special accounts here and there,” she said.
“I have a colleague from another African country who told me that when they became finance minister they found the national oil entity had 96 accounts.”
In Uganda, she said, oil “will not be a parallel economy.”
Uganda’s path to production has been a bumpy one since deposits were discovered in 2006 near its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Source: PM News

Anglican leader fears Nigeria gay marriage backlash

Justin Welby, head of the Anglican Communion worldwide has warned that if the Church of England accepted gay marriage worldwide, it could prove "catastrophic" for Christians in Nigeria and other African countries.
On his four-nation tour of Africa earlier this year, the former oil executive wrote to the presidents of Nigeria and Uganda warning against the "victimisation or diminishment" of homosexuals.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the spiritual head of all Anglicans said encouraging gay marriage in Africa could potentially lead to massacres of Christians.
Gay marriage became legal in England and Wales on 29 March although the Church of England, the state church, is barred from performing same-sex marriages to provide it with an additional layer of legal protection.
"What we say here is heard around the world," Welby told LBC radio. "Why can't we just do it now? Because the impact of that on Christians in countries far from here, like South Sudan, like Pakistan, Nigeria and other places, would be absolutely catastrophic, and we have to love them as much as we love the people who are here."

France underestimated Central African Republic hatred – Official

France underestimated the level of hatred between Christian and Muslim communities in the conflict-riven Central African Republic, its ambassador to the UN has said.

Gerard Araud told a UN meeting on Wednesday that African Union and French forces were confronting a “nearly impossible” situation.
They were between “two communities who want to kill each other”, he said.

Mr Araud said that calls to end the fighting were being ignored.

France, the former colonial power, has deployed 1,600 troops to try to restore peace, along with an African Union force of some 4,000.

“We have to think in terms of tactics: what to do, in very practical terms, to be effective to prevent people from killing each other when they desperately want to kill each other,” Mr Araud told an event organised to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.

“We knew that there was some inter-sectarian violence, but we didn’t forecast such deep ingrained hatred.

“We maybe need to work with psychologists or ethnologists on how did it appear, and now, how to cool down the situation.”