Uganda news update – Madhvani Foundation offers 550 Mio UShs for 2011/12 academic year

MADHVANI FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE WORTH 550 MILLION SHILLINGS

‘Gifted, hardworking and financially challenged Ugandan students’, to quote the Madhvani Foundation in regard to its target group, will once again benefit from available scholarships worth the equivalent of nearly 250.000 US Dollars, or 550 million Uganda Shillings.

Courses are not just limited to the traditional science or engineering fields but can include hospitality and tourism management too, opening the door for more students to apply for consideration.

Applications are invited until the 31^st of May and details can be sourced via www.madhvanifoundation.com or by writing to info@madhvanifoundation.com  which is Uganda’s largest privately operated scholarship foundation scheme and trust.

The Madhvani Group is at the forefront of Uganda’s hospitality investments in the safari lodge sector in Uganda with presently three lodges in two national parks but also, probably even better known for their Kakira Sugar Company, their manufacturing and insurance interests and is one of the best reputed family concerns in the country.

Kenya hospitality news update – Madhvani Group going places

MADHVANI GROUP’S HOSPITALITY INTERESTS IN KENYA ‘SET TO GROW’

The acquisition two years ago of the Mara Leisure Camp by the Ugandan based Madhvani Group was the first such cross border investment coming from Uganda into Kenya, with previously only the reverse direction being the case, as Kenyan tourism companies invested in Uganda.

Top management of the company in Kampala were open in their comments back then to this correspondent, that investing in Kenya’s premier game reserve was to be but a start of a wider strategy, to expand their operations from Uganda across the border. Being the undisputed market leader in the lodge sector in Uganda in terms of volume – other companies may have more properties and more locations but less rooms – it made sense, especially with an eye on the growing integration of the East African region into a single market, to spread the wings and create a presence first in Kenya before then eyeing Tanzania and other EAC member states. Only a few weeks ago was the news broken here that the Madhvani Group had finalized the purchase of the Aberdare Country Club and the Ark from Fairmont Kenya, a development already intimated here way back in November last year. The group is now in the process to establish a reservations office in Nairobi to process bookings for their three Kenyan properties and the appointment of a General Manager Kenya has also been confirmed earlier this week.

Kenneth Mugira, who previously served as General Manager in both the Paraa and Mweya lodges in Murchisons Falls and Queen Elizabeth national parks respectively, before being posted to the Mara Leisure Camp, has assumed that position and will be based in Nairobi, also overseeing the operational side of the Madhvani Group’s properties.

Watch this space for future updates and breaking news, as the Madhvani story in Kenya will certainly not end with these three properties – conventional wisdom says, there is more to come yet and you can read about it here, as and when it happens.

Uganda aviation breaking news – Qatar Airways set for Entebbe

QATAR AIRWAYS SET FOR ENTEBBE

While available information remains sketchy and has in recent days come in bits and pieces, it seems clear however that Qatar Airways, the self proclaimed ‘5 Star Airline’, is set to commence daily flights between Doha and Entebbe from early November this year.

A regular source within the Civil Aviation Authority establishment in Entebbe has confirmed that much, but no light could be shed on the type of aircraft the airline intends to use, although there is speculation it would be a single aisle Airbus for the time being.

Flights to Entebbe will close the gap for Qatar Airways in East Africa, as they already fly to Nairobi and to Dar es Salaam, and both destinations recently saw a major boost in the number of flights, serving notice to travelers and other airlines that Qatar Airways sees a strong traffic potential in the region which it aims to tap into and connect via their hub in Doha to the rest of the world, competing with the likes of Emirates and Kenya Airways on the routes to the Gulf and beyond.

A new mega airport under construction in Qatar will aid further expansion plans by the small country’s national airline, which has in recent years made waves about their ‘phenomenal inflight service’ according to someone who recently travelled with them from Nairobi and sent in rave reviews to this correspondent.

Inspite of flying for many years into Nairobi, and later on to Dar es Salaam, Entebbe – Uganda’s international airport – had been left out so far and it will be a coup of sorts for the CAA to have attracted Qatar Airways to fly into the country on a daily basis, offering more choices to passengers both from and to Uganda. It is in the latter segment, where in particular tourism and trade can benefit from the added exposure Uganda will be getting, when the airline starts marketing their new destination in earnest across their network.

More seats on more flights normally translates into a lot more visitors to the country, coming to explore Uganda’s attractive investment opportunities – including the nascent oil sector – but also for touring the country’s national parks and seeing the Pearl of Africa’s scenic attractions from Lake Victoria, over the River Nile to the Mountains of the Moon.

Watch this space for breaking news and regular news updates from the aviation scene in Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean region.