Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa won the case at the East African Court of Justice, seven years after the Rwanda government illegally seized his Union Trade Centre Mall.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / November 30, 2020 / Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa is the founder and controlling shareholder of the Union Trade Centre (UTC), located in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. Back in 2013, the Paul Kagame government seized the US$20 million UTC shopping mall. The government falsely claimed that UTC was an abandoned property. The Rwanda government subsequently auctioned off UTC for a mere US$8 million, after alleging in 2015 that the company had defaulted on taxes, even though the government had expropriated the mall two years earlier. When seized in 2013, UTC was Kigali's busiest commercial hub hosting over 80 businesses that employed nearly 500 workers.
Ayabatwa welcomed the decision by the East African Court of Justice (EACJ), noting the broader lesson from the Union Trade Centre case. "We greatly appreciate the work of the Court and its ruling in our favour." Nonetheless, the UTC case reveals yet again, the relentless challenges facing the business community in Rwanda. Once an investor puts his or her money in Rwanda, the battle begins for staying in business in a hostile environment whereby the government is a predator instead of a partner in wealth and employment creation. For a small poor country like ours, this hostile attitude sends a negative message that Rwanda is not open for business. Hopefully, the government will learn from the UTC case ruling and change its approach to investors in Rwanda.
About Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa
Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa is a successful entrepreneur, business leader, and philanthropist from Rwanda. Ayabatwa is the founder and controlling shareholder of the Pan African Tobacco Group, Africa's largest indigenous manufacturer of tobacco products. The company, which recently celebrated its 40th year of operations, manufactures cigarettes in nine African countries including Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and the United Arab Emirates. Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa is also one of Africa's leading philanthropists. He has helped communities uplift themselves in fields such as education, food security, afforestation, and water-access. Through his non-profit foundation, Ayababwa also strives to help young people to gain the practical engineering experience required to enter the job market in Africa.
CONTACT:
David Himbara
PanAfrican Tobacco Group
[email protected]
www.ptg-hld.com
SOURCE: Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa