Between partnerships with PSG and Arsenal and the organization of the World Road Cycling Championships in 2025, Rwanda is investing massively in sport, but these expenses have drawn criticism from the opposition, who doubt their usefulness for the economy of the host country. 73rd FIFA Congress.
Rwanda’s presence in the sphere of sport began in May 2018 with the signing for several million dollars of a partnership agreement with the English club Arsenal then the following year with Paris Saint-Germain, stronghold of the French soccer. The “Visit Rwanda” logo has appeared in the Premier League and Ligue 1.
The organization, past or future, of international sporting events, from the first edition of the African Basketball League in 2021 to the World Road Cycling Championships in 2025, has confirmed the direction desired by the Rwandan authorities.
It required extensive work to provide the country with new sports infrastructure: 104 million dollars for a 10,000-seat basketball hall, 16 million for a golf course inaugurated in 2021 in Kigali and 165 million budgeted for the construction site in course at the National Stadium, whose capacity should increase from 25,000 to 45,000 seats in 2024.
President Paul Kagame sees these investments as a way to diversify the economy and increase the international stature of the small country in the Great Lakes region, whose history is marked by the tragedy of the 1994 genocide.
Its detractors consider rather that these lavish expenditures serve above all to divert attention while NGOs regularly accuse the government of muzzling the opposition.
– “Improvement of people’s lives” –
“These investments do not meet the immediate needs of the vast majority of Rwandans,” opponent Victoire Ingabire told AFP. “I don’t think there is a return for his investments,” she continues, noting in particular that the sponsorships have not enabled much to help Rwandans living in the countryside.
“It’s wasted money,” concludes the opposition leader. With approximately 13 million inhabitants, the annual per capita income in Rwanda was estimated in 2021 at 822 dollars by the World Bank.
Rwandan authorities say instead that holding such events brings in much-needed foreign currency and boosts the economy of the landlocked nation which depends on tourism.
The sector’s revenues, before the Covid-19 pandemic, had jumped 17% in 2019 compared to the previous year, to reach some 500 million dollars, according to the Rwanda Development Board, a government institution.
Its manager, Clare Akamanzi, claimed over the weekend that partnerships with Arsenal and PSG had generated more than $160 million. And also helped attract one million visitors to Rwanda, generating an additional $445 million.
“These visitors not only left Rwanda with positive memories, but also played a direct role in improving people’s lives,” she wrote in the East African weekly on Saturday.
– “We will not be intimidated” –
“To disagree with Rwanda’s model of governance is normal, but to campaign once morest investment in the economy of a developing country, which has a real impact on the lives (of) people, is is counter-productive and cynical,” she also attacked.
Contracts with Arsenal and PSG, Paul Kagame said this month, exceeded “by far what we invested”. President since April 2000 but considered the de facto ruler of the country since the end of the genocide in 1994, Kagame added that his government was close to entering into a partnership with a third football club.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a foreign diplomat told AFP he doubted the authorities’ claims. “I don’t know if it’s profitable (…). If it pays off in the long term, maybe then, but today I don’t think so,” he said, adding that he had not seen any figures supporting these claims.
The doubts raised by “experts who know almost nothing regarding Rwanda” will not stop the initiatives, swept Clare Akamanzi, director of the Rwanda Development Board. “We will not be intimidated and we will not give up our place at the table.”
