Mohammed Hersi . A hotelier passionate about Tourism & Governance in Africa

Rwanda & Arsenal Shirt Sleeve Sponsorship.

My other African favourite nation Rwanda after my home country Kenya has lately been trending for all the good reasons. Simply put Rwanda has been trending months before the English premier league season even starts in August.

To Daily Mail & BBC your ignorance tinged with arrogance is not helping you to understand Rwanda the new kid on the block.

Rwanda is a tiny African nation right in the heart of Africa. The International community could not easily place Rwanda during the terrible 100 days of Genocide in 1994. A ragtag army led by Paul Kagame managed to bring the killings to a stop and they say the rest is history. Rwanda is not seeking sympathy from any corner , all they want is understanding and to be treated with dignity. If you cross their line they will not hesitate to put you in your place . BBC’s John Humphrys got a taste of same from Clare Akamanzi CEO Rwanda Development Board when he attempted to be condescending while trying to paint Rwanda as a desperate starving African state.

Listening to BBC Radio 4 interview you could feel the ignorance by the radio host who kept referring to Rwanda as impoverished African country led by a dictator while Daily Mail reporter was also not left behind to expose his ignorance about Rwanda.

Rwanda is no longer dependent on aid . Rwanda hardly gets 15% of its budgets from aid hence the often reported claims that Rwanda is run through aid is not only misplaced but loads of hogwash.

Rwanda is a tiny land locked country with very limited resources hence in their Vision 2020 they have identified people as their main resource.

Rwanda has identified Tourism as the main driver to help bring in the much needed foreign exchange Rwanda targets high end tourists who mainly come to see the endangered mountain gorillas and lately Kigali has become a leading MICE destination attracting key meeting to the ultra modern Kigali Convention Centre. Vietnam, Cambodia have used tourism as means to reduce and eradicate poverty. Tourism is labour intensive hence Rwanda is also following the same script.

Rwanda is busy restocking Akagera National Park so that they are able to attract safari seekers in addition to Gorilla trekking enthusiasts .

Allow me to share just five reasons why partnering with Arsenal makes business sense.

1. Partnering with Arsenal was a true coup and a masterstroke move. Spending $30M or $40M over 3 years is no big deal when in 2017 Rwanda earned $440M from tourism and they are focused to double that to $800M+. It means it is costing Rwanda on and about $10M per year which is less than 3% of tourism earnings in one year . If Rwanda is to gross $2B over the next 3 years it means they would have spent a mere 2 % of their total earnings. Next door Kenya a parastatal just lost double that amount in some fishy deals where we are still trying to figure out how it all happened .

2. Arsenal is not an ordinary football team , it’s a very successful business. They may not have been very successful lately in collecting silverware but as a business it standing at No 6 as the most valuable soccer team in the world. In broadcasting alone Arsenal raked in close to $1B.

3. The social media power of Arsenal is not a pushover either with 60Million followers across various platforms . On the other hand a single player like Ozil boasts of 60Millions followers . Ozil is very influential across his ancestral home Turkey. Germany his adopted home and UK where he plies his football trade. The entire Arsenal team command 1 Billion + followers which Rwanda will be accessing by default.

Advertising on BBC or Daily Mail does not deliver even a fraction of that .

4. Rwanda is looking far beyond tourism in clinching a deal with Arsenal . Both Arsenals Men and women team will be visiting Rwanda once a year. Please show me any African country that has had such a visit by a leading football team . Please note all these players who earn millions are investors in their own rights.

The fact that Arsenal both senior and under 23 including the women team visiting Rwanda every year for the next 3 years means that Rwanda will use this visit to tell the world more about the positive things . To the BBC and Daily mail reporter you can walk past midnight in Kigali and you are safe. Try doing that in London , you could end up becoming a stabbing victim.

5. Rwanda football will greatly benefit from the Arsenal deal where many talented young Rwandans may find themselves at Arsenal youth team and in the process get into serious professional football . Rwanda has already invested big time in world class stadiums not some soup kitchen for street families.

To the ignorant and ill informed BBC and Daily Mail host and reporter a quick facts about Rwanda will help.

1. Rwanda is one of the few African countries that have almost achieved the Millennium Development goals now sustainable goals. A simple google will help to enlighten you . It has majority female legislators beating even the Scandinavian countries.

2. Rwanda has been ranked as Africas most efficient goverment followed by Mauritius and South Africa in the global competitive report. Rwanda was also ranked 7th most efficient goverment globally beating many EU countries.

3. Ease of doing business Rwanda is now ranked No 2 behind Mauritius beating South Africa and North Africa countries . It climbed 15 places in 2018 to position 41 globally and their goal to top 20 is looking more realistic. To appreciate Rwandas hard work and discipline my own Kenya is ranked 80 and Botswana 81 globally.

4. On the bribery index Rwanda is ranked 48 out of 180 countries while the rest of the East African countries keep each other company in the 100+ zone which is a familiar territory for African countries and thaf is the expected by the likes of BBC , Daily Mail et al.President Paul Kagame and Rwanda are fighting hard to leave that club of notorious corrupt countries and they are determined to do just that .

5. Rwanda is a nation of many firsts in Africa , open door policy with least visa restrictions, business licensing in less than 3 hours , construction license in less than 6 hours , they banned plastic ages ago and Kigali has been voted cleanest city in Africa on numerous occasions and Rwanda has just said NO to second hand clothes which Trump and USA have punished them by taking them off the Agoa list.

President Paul Kagame is one very focused leader who listens but at the same will go for dignity above anything else.

Finally on that perrenial reminder about dictatorship by Paul Kagame , Dambisa Moyo in her book Dead Aid said ” What poor countries at the lowest rungs of economic development need is not a multi party democracy , but in fact a decisive benevolent dictator to push through the reforms required to get the economy moving ” simply put rushing to elections before economic growth has proven not that successful. Many African countries go to the polls every 4 or 5 years yet the same has not translated to economic prosperity. Please go to Libya now that ” Dictator” Gaddafi is no more.

President Kagame and Rwanda value more trade than aid . It is said give a man a fish and you feed him for a day , teach him how to fish and you feed him for life. Well PK and Rwanda Inc have opted to go fishing rather than wait for that fish with millions of strings attached.

Bottom line the deal with Arsenal is a good one , may the games begin.

As always I choose to remain an optimsit

Mohammed Hersi
Kenyan Hotelier & Governance Trainer