Travel to Bujumbura the easy way
By Joseph Batte
Are you a businessman or woman with big intentions of investing in Burundi? Or an adventure-seeking tourist, wondering how to get there?
No need to worry. Anybody aspiring to travel to Burundi has two options.
If you belong to the well-moneyed club, you can go by air. Formerly, Air Burundi, Air France, Air Zaire, Air Tanzania, the defunct Sabena and Cameroon Airlines were among the airlines serving Bujumbura International Airport. And the civil war broke out. Most of these airlines pulled out while others, like Sabena, folded.
Peace is now back and so are the airlines like Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines, which maintain regular flights to Bujumbura.
However the cheapest way to go to Burundi is by road. Gaso Bus Service has two brand new Scania buses that ply the Kampala-Kigali-Bujumbura route. The Bujumbura-bound bus, leaves Kampala at exactly 8:00am and arrives in Bujumbura at 5:00pm the same, day while the Kampala-bound bus leaves Bujumbura at 7:30am (Burundi time) and arrives in Kampala at 11:00 pm.
 Kenya Airways passengers on arrival at Bujumbura Airport. Kenya Airways flies to Bujumbura regularly
Visitors to Burundi should have valid travel documents -a passport or temporary travel permit with an entry visa and a valid certificate of small pox vaccination and yellow fever. Entry visas for those travelling by road can be issued at the immigration offices at the border posts of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Although travelling to Burundi by road takes a gruelling 15 hours, it’s mostly an all-smooth affair and very exciting. The construction of the road through the thousand hills that stretch from Rwanda to Burundi was an engineering feat worth admiring. The sight of the deep valleys, the steep hills and bus driver expertly negotiating every twist and turn can take your breath away and is a life-time experience.
On arrival one of the first things you will notice about Bujumbura city, are its roads, which are wider than Kampala’s. A few days later, it dawns on you that the city does not only have wider roads, it is also probably one of the best-planned towns in the East Africa region.
Besides the wide tarmac roads, Bujumbura also boasts of enchanting cobbled roads, whose construction is being funded by the World Bank. You can’t help imagining, Uganda would solve its problem of potholes, if it could copy this road construction technique.
This type of roads are cheap top make and they last for hundreds of years like the ones in the European cities. The first thing you need to know while in Burundi is the road number, the plot and then the area and you will never get lost.
For example if you are going to Uganda Restaurant, you only have to tell the taxi driver: Buyenzi, Road No.16, No.1. The latter is the plot number.
Bujumbura has a very efficient private taxi service. The drivers are courteous and any short journey within the town costs only 1000 Burundi francs, about sh1,700. Traffic police is very strict with buckling up. Any passenger who does not comply, faces arrest.
Motorcycles (boda boda) for hire are also many in Bujumbura. But they are commonly referred to in French as taxi moto. What is more heartening to learn is that it is actually safer to ride on a Bujumbura taxi Moto than have on a boda boda in Kampala.
Cyclists in Bujumbura are respect all the traffic rules, including the one-way streets. Their counterparts in Kampala are the complete opposite. They ride like they have taken some illegal substance.
As a traffic rule, each taxi moto, in Bujumbura is supposed to be equipped with two helmets, one for the cyclist and the other for the passenger.
Any motorcycle that is seen carrying a passenger who is not wearing a helmet risks being arrested, dumped in prison and later dragged to court.
There are two ferries which carry passengers and cargo along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika - the MV Liemba between Kigoma and Mpulungu and the MV Mwongozo, which runs between Kigoma and Bujumbura.
The port town of Kigoma is the railhead for the railway from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania while the port town of Kalemie is the railhead for the D.R. Congo rail network.
Lake Tanganyika is not only a large lake in central Africa, it is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia.
The lake is divided between four countries - Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Zambia, with the DRC (45%) and Tanzania (41%) possessing the majority of the lake whose waters flows into the Congo River system and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean. |
Sosumo to boost sugar production
By Joseph Batte
The Moso Sugar Company (Sosumo) is a joint company that deals with sugar cane cultivation as well as sugar production and sale. In 2006, SOSUMO produced 18,143 tones with a turnover of 9billion Burundi Francs. 
A worker carries a sack of sugar at the Sosumo factory in Rutana Province
The SOSUMO company which was created in 1988, is located in Rutana Province in the South-east of the Republic of Burundi, the natural site of Moso at Gihofi village, which is about 180 kilometres from Bujumbura.
The company covers an area of 5,800 hactres, at an altitude of 1,200m between River Muyovozi and River Mitsindozi, tributaries of Malagarazi river that forms the border with the United Republic of Tanzania.
The sugar quality (or its industrial value) depends on the sugar quality contained in the juice and the juice quality of the cane
The Moso area meets the requirements to have good quality of sugar because of the following reasons:
- Good soil that is sandy, clay, light and permeable alluvial and suitable for sugarcane cultivation.
- A fine sunny climate very favourable for the growth and smooth maturing of the cane (20 degrees centigrade to 32 degrees centigrade);
- Very good thermal amplitudes facilitating the deposit of saccharin and harvesting in time
- The varieties of canes cultivated at Moso are very rich and pure.
- No threat of diseases especially viral and fungal diseases which affect the juice;
- Good control of the manure and perfect maintenance.
Quality
The SOSUMO Company produces high quality sugar referred to as ‘White plantation,’ of the ‘high polarisation type (average polarisation of 99.4 degrees).
The cane cultivated by SOSUMO is rich, about 14% of sugar and has a fibre of 12.5% . The knowledge and mastering of technology are the basis of the quality of SOSUMO sugar.
Thus, the SOSUMO Company today has a very good and powerful factory both at the level of general recuperation and global efficiency which is estimated today at 93%.
Future prespective
Up to now, SOSUMO is a joint company where the state owns 99% shares. Its production was for a long time protected.
However, Burundi is now a member of the Free Trade Area of the COMESA (Common Market For Eastern and Southern Africa.
In this new context, Burundi applies the Zero Customs Rate for the products coming from the member states of COMESA. The government decided to liberalise sugar trade in 2005.
SOSUMO optimism
- Although SOSUMO’s production equipment is used continuously and regularly, qualified technicians who are in charge of maintenance and repairs offer good service.
It is worth noting that spare parts are always bought before the harvesting period to replace old ones.
- SOSUMO sugar is highly appreciated by both the Burundians and consumers in the sub-region. That means that the new situation about the sugar trade doesn’t at all threaten the company, which will obviously sell its sugar at a good price.
The rehabilitation and extension project has been finalised. It will aim at:
- Increasing sugarcane production by irrigating some plots.
- Progressively replacing the old equipment.
- Making various improvement to produce 35,000 tones from 33,000 tones today, within three years.
- Transforming the molasses into carburising, pharmarceutical and consumable alcohol.
- Finally, to always do better, by improving the quality of the cane.
Gahushi Ramadhan Seff Ntaconzoba Alexis
Sales Manager General Manager |
