Perfectly Pointless

One cannot walk a long distance down a Kigali sidewalk without running into yellow jersey-clad young men hocking plastic cards containing codes with which to refill a mobile phone’s airtime. I’ve read elsewhere that the business can be lucrative, but whatever the economics before, they’re now a little less attractive:
MTN Rwanda airtime distributors and vendors [...]

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Minty Fresh

At some point in the past few days I acquired an unusually decrepit–even for Rwanda– 2,000 franc note (~$4); not only is it nearly torn asunder, but it’s also missing a quarter sized chunk at the top of the bill. So is it still worth 2,000 francs? The National Bank of Rwanda would say yes, [...]

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In Vino Veritas

Several projects command my attention on any given day, but the one consuming most of my time at the moment is a wine business I run with the financial backing of a few expats. We’re currently importing 19 types of South African wine and retailing it in Kigali. In the past week or so, we’ve [...]

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The Dark Continent

Sitting in a dank room lit only by a single candle a few nights ago, an acquaintance of mine explained a thought of his about Africa. As we sipped our homemade banana beer (which I believe was responsible for an unpleasant trip to the toilet a few hours later), he talked of how both literal [...]

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Makes Johann a Dull Boy

An Economist leader this week criticizes Germany’s exportlust:
Yet Germany’s muscle-bound economy is also a victim of its exporters’ success. Global markets are volatile: the country’s current-account surplus has fallen by more than half from a mighty 8% of GDP in just a year. As the hard-earned surpluses piled up, they were invested in lower-quality foreign [...]

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