From the Basketball Africa League (BAL) to Afrobasket, Rwanda has hosted the continent’s biggest basketball competitions from 2021. And the Land of a Thousand Hills is preparing to host the UCI Road World Championships in 2025. A first for the continent, Kigali is emerging in the coveted niche of sports tourism destinations on the continent. Sports tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of tourism worldwide and has been for the past decade. The activities associated with such events create enormous opportunities for tourism and related industries. A good example in Africa is the World Rugby Cup 1995 and FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa. While we wait for the next World Cup to be hosted in Africa, if Egypt wins the competition, Côte d’Ivoire is preparing to host the next Africa Cup of Nations.
A number of countries on the continent are targeting this major economic challenge. Rwanda is one of them. In these times of crisis and economic slowdown, Rwanda is betting more than ever on sport to generate new sources of growth, in particular by attracting pan-African and international sporting events. It is a gamble that has already paid off in part: the country has managed to fill the capital’s hotels and the new Kigali Arena sports complex for several weeks.
« Nurture and promote the development of sport with a view to integrating this sector into the wider national development plan”
These encouraging results are first and foremost the result of a strategy dear to the heart of President Paul Kagamé, which aims to « nurture and promote the development of sport with a view to integrating it into the wider national development plan », says Clare Akamanzi, Director of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the national investment promotion agency. « The sports sector, which is worth several billion euros worldwide, offers enormous economic potential for investors and for our people, who will benefit directly or indirectly, » says the RDB director. She thus justifies the « strategic decision » of the Rwandan government to invest in sports infrastructure in order to strengthen its ambition to become a destination for sporting events on the continent.
In addition to the Kigali Arena complex, these investments include « the Kigali Golf Club […] as well as the cricket stadium and the forthcoming upgrading of existing stadiums », explains Clare Akamanzi, not forgetting to invite « the local private sector to seize this opportunity and invest in this sector with its strong economic potential and high impact in all sectors (accommodation, hospitality, transport, logistics). » In this context, Rwanda should continue to use sport to promote its national priorities, such as the Visit Rwanda campaign with PSG and Arsenal, a sponsorship partnership launched in 2018 for more than $42 million and recently renewed. A sign of return on investment.
Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal… Sport: a key focus for development
Football, basketball and cycling (Rwanda will host the UCI Road World Championships in 2025) …. It’s clear that the Land of a Thousand Hills is betting on all fronts to win its sporting gamble. But this policy of maximizing the economic spin-offs of sport goes far beyond the Rwandan example, as the cases of Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal show. These countries, which have hosted or will host the African Women’s Cup of Nations in 2022, the African Cup of Nations in 2023 and the Youth Olympic Games in 2026, are also making sport a key focus for development. The potential for growth is enormous, as Amadou Gallo Fall, promoter of the Basketball Africa League, points out that the sports industry in Africa « accounts for barely 0.5% of GDP […] despite the huge popularity of sports, which are constantly diversifying. »
Donors investing in the sector
Therefore, it’s not surprising that donors are also investing in the sports sector to support the continent’s development. The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) has made sport one of its key priorities and is working with the Fédération Internationale de Football (FIFA) and the NBA to make football and basketball vectors for development and social change in Africa. From this point of view, the creation of an NBA Academy Africa and the launch of the Basketball Africa League – in which AFD is a partner – are good examples of this desire to combine « the NBA’s expertise in sports practice with AFD’s expertise in sustainable development », as the French development agency is pleased to point out. In total, this partnership with the National Basketball Association aims to launch programs in five African countries (Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya and South Africa), one of the components of which, the « Basketball Experience » initiative, is already underway in Morocco with the construction of an « AFDxNBA » court in Zenata, on the outskirts of Casablanca. AFD has committed €75 million to sport since 2018, spread over 70 projects.
