Egypt s Ambassador to Uganda Ashraf Swailem accompanying First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of African affair Rebecca Kadaga, Minister of energy and mineral resource Ruth Sentamu during the ceremony of handing over the Busia Solar power plant to the Ugandan government on Tuesday. Photo Egyptian embassy in Uganda

Uganda’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of African affair Rebecca Kadaga, Minister of energy and Mineral Resources Ruth Sentamu and a representative of Minister of state for Higher of education John Muyungu attended the event, the Egyptian embassy in Kampala reported.

According to the embassy, Uganda’s first deputy prime minister and minister of energy expressed their happiness as well as their deep thanks on behalf of the Ugandan leadership to the president and the government and people of Egypt for this great project, and what it represents in strengthening the strength of the extended bilateral relations between the two countries.

The Ugandan officials praised the Egyptian support for the energy sector in Uganda, which is considered one of the main axes of the Ugandan national strategy for development, adding that they were looking forward to more cooperation with the Egyptian side in the field of energy and others, and studying opportunities for future investments, and ways to maximize the benefit from Busia station project.

Ambassador Ashraf Swailem stated that the Busia solar power plant project in eastern Uganda was a significant addition to the Egyptian projects in the country, where the amount of energy provided by the plant reaches 4 megawatts, which will be connected to the Ugandan national electricity grid to maximize the benefit of other regions from the energy generated from the station.

The ambassador highlighted in his word during the event the important role of the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy which launched the project and signed its agreement with its Ugandan counterpart ministry.

According to Swailem, the Foreign Ministry’s Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development financed the project with USD 6 million.

The solar power plant was implemented by the Arab Renewable Energy Company in cooperation with Giza System Company. The Arab Renewable Energy Company is one of the Arab Organization for Industrialization Companies’ subsidies.

 The Egyptian ambassador in Uganda added that the Busia station project was another example of the great improvement in Egyptian-Uganda relations during the recent period, listing the recent Egyptian projects in the country, which includes the opening of the medical center in Jinja last October and the inauguration of a new phase in joint Egyptian model farm in November and the continuation of the projects carried out by the Egyptian irrigation mission such as removing weeds from Ugandan lakes.

The ambassador explained that the Egyptian support to the plant project in Uganda comes from a belief in the importance of renewable energy to face the repercussions of climate change in Africa and to adapt to it, coinciding with Egypt's presidency of the twenty-seventh session of the UN Conference on Climate Change "COP27", which Sharm El-Sheikh will host next November. - Ahram Online

In under a week, the second and final phase of the Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration (ECVR) in Kenya will kick off amid calls from politicians to make the biometric identity enrollment process inclusive enough so that people of nomadic communities can add their names to the electoral roll, KBC reports.

The report quotes the Chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Wafula Chebukati, as saying the ECVR exercise will commence on 17 January and close on 6 February, ahead of the general elections scheduled for 9 August 2022.

For Kenyans out of the country, the activity will run from 21 January to 6 February and the biometric and demographic information of registrants will be collected at the country’s embassies, high commissions and consulates.

According to Chebukati, the IECB has been granted additional funding for the voter registration exercise which seeks to hit the 4.5 million target for the final phase. In the first phase, the IEBC recorded just around 1.5 million new voters, far below the six million it expected to register.

Chebukati said in a recent press conference that the IEBC has taken every measure to ensure the activity is a success. The official also reiterated the electoral body’s commitment to ensuring that the upcoming general elections are held in a free, fair, credible, acceptable and transparent manner, KBC mentions.

The IEBC boss also told Kenyans that second-phase registration is an opportunity for all those who missed the first to either register their name for the first time on the electoral register, or to transfer polling stations or update any other information.

Faulty biometric machines delay Uganda by-elections

By-elections in the Ugandan district of Kayunga which took place last 16 December were delayed by several hours due to non-functional biometric devices deployed across polling stadiums.

URN reports that many voters were made to wait for hours.

While the delays were also occasioned in some cases by lateness in delivering election materials, the report adds that in some other voting stations, biometric machines took a long time to start.

The elections were to elect a new Local Council Chairperson.

Nigeria ABIS expunges 14k double registrations in the capital

More than 14,000 double registrations have been deleted from the electoral roll in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) thanks to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) Automatic Biometric Voter Registration system ahead of Area Council elections there next month. The elections are scheduled for 12 February.

According to This Day, 14,665 entries were expunged from the 42,986 total number of voters registered in the FCT during the Continuous Voter Registration, which was recently suspended.

The report cites INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman for Information and Voter Education Commission, Festus Okoye, as saying in a press conference that the process to distribute 39,208 newly-printed Permanent Voter Cards (PVRs) for the remaining eligible voters has begun. That number includes the over 28,000 remaining on the voter roll, plus transferred registrations from other areas, and replacements for lost, stolen and damaged cards. The exercise will run until 4 February. - BiometricUpdate.com

The pioneer of the smart phone before the smartphone BlackBerry has announced devices running on its BlackBerry OS software will stop working as of next week.

From January 4th, BlackBerry OS device owners won’t be able to make or receive calls, send texts, use Wi-Fi, or access mobile data.

That includes all smartphones running on BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, the ill-fated BlackBerry 10 operating system and even the tablet-based BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 (and earlier).

“As of this date, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality,” the company said in a support post (via Liliputing).

However, if you have one of the few BlackBerry devices that launched running Android, such as the 2017 BlackBerry Priv, you won’t be affected.

The company had already announced over a year ago that its transition to a software company had been completed. Back in September of last year it announced it would be “taking steps to decommission the legacy services” ahead of the termination date of January 4. By Chris Smith Technology UK