So Rwanda gave Arsenal $30 million over a 3 year period deal to market their country on their shirts but some countries like Britain and Netherlands are mad that they cannot be giving an African country like Rwanda money for aid while it wastes it sponsoring a soccer Team.
Currently Rwanda makes around $400 million from Tourism and they want to double this to 800 by 2021 so what’s wrong with this investment of 10 million per year? Their development track is great and most of us wish we had such save for the ruling forever part so am sure they can pull it. This is why some African countries go to china for aid, The west has so many condition even when none is needed. EPL and most European teams have investments from Arabian and Russians which questionable pasts yet no one talks about them so they should shut up and let Rwanda promote their tourism.
They went around it wrong, marketing themselves directly.I would have advised they hire an entity that will be tasked with marketing the country with a strict budget and guidelines. Arsenal is Paul Kagames’s favourite team and it looks like the decision came from him naturally. How would you account for the spending ? Rwanda has outbid several powerhouses for the deal.Is that the best return on Investment? Hard to measure, given its a government project.
This is a case of mjinga akierevuka,mwerevu yu mashakani…Rwanda will make money and stop depending on the donors aid,after which the donor will be forced to loosen the grip they have on Rwandan’s balls currently while they want to remain in control for as long as it can last
Sio ati LDC kuwaste pesa.The real reason they are angry is that they do not want any positive image from Africa. When Tuju was information minister he tried to fungua a Kenyan radio station in the UK to market Kenya. Hiyo idea ilizimwa kama taa. Na yet BBC iko hapa like nonsense.
A donor anakupa pesa ya HIV unatumia kusponsor favourite team to market Rwanda. Maybe he had good intentiins genuinely (which personally i doubt) but even so he went about it wrong.
Hata wewe nikikam begging for cash nalala njaa halafu unanipata club nakunywa pombe utaskia aje?
Rwanda has learned to fish, and it now seems those who taught them to fish are raving mad? How many fans watch Arsenal playing soccer world wide? How much in tourism TV advertisements would it cost to have a 30 second spot shown in multiple markets each time Arsenal played? More tourists going to Rwanda = More Jobs = More Revenue = Less Dependence on Donor Aid. Lastly, who is it that is actually complaining? Angry commentators with nothing positive to write about Africa or the actual donor governments?
Kwani wamelazimishwa kupeana aid? What they neglect to tell us is that this “aid” also buys them influence. So huyo mtu anakupa 1 million dollars “aid” alafu anakuconvince upee company ya kwao contract ya 100 million dollars. How do you say no when he’s been so kind to you? So in that sense, he’s used 1 dollar to earn 99 more. Hapa Kenya pia kuna siku walithreaten kususpend aid to the education sector, when that aid accounted for a paltry 5% of the sector’s budget. Judging by the noise they made, you’d think they contributed 99.9%. Thomas Sankara was murdered for, among other things, refusing to accept foreign aid. He famously said “He who feeds you, controls you.”. So ata hii case ya Rwanda hawataki wajitegemee, they just want the Rwandese to keep begging.
With all due respect, this argument would make sense if Rwanda used their own money to support Arsenal, one of the wealthiest corporations in the world.
As it is, 20% of their budget is donor driven. This campaign smacks of a vanity project by President Kagame, whose favourite team, incidentally, is Arsenal FC.
Priorities, priorities my brother. When will African governments get it right?
Rwanda depends on Foreign Aid to supplement at Least 20% of its Budget, While Arsenal is Overflowing with cash,and operating with no loans from anyone, In fact Kroenke, a major shareholder, Just added
From the article you posted, don’t you think it makes logical sense for the Rwandese to market their country for natural resources they themselves own? Would anyone have been screaming if the Rwandese had used $50-100M or more to market themselves on say CNN or Time Magazine? Perhaps then the story would have been that Kagame is a fan of Time Magazine or CNN and that is why they were chosen.
Which better way exists to get out of poverty and donor aid dependence than to promote your own industries? When you travel outside of Africa, do you ever hear of Rwanda mentioned as a destination for Tourism? Kenyans who are also Arsenal fans mostly think of Rwanda as a place for jobs (jobs that Rwandese should be holding) and not tourism. The very fact that we are even debating this shows that such publicity and marketing is needed. The Rwandese are doing everything right but by conjecture, mischievous individuals want to dictate how funds allocated to them for poverty eradication should be used (in other words they are lying about the end use of the funds to get the aid cancelled so that sectors such as education are handicapped):
[INDENT]“The donor aid … is unpredictable and it’s very small. It’s shrinking every day,” said Claver Gatete, Rwanda’s Finance Minister. He is keen for his country to reduce its dependence on unpredictable donor aid, which account for about 20 percent of Rwanda’s budget. Foreign loans also constitute 13 percent, meaning 33 percent of the country’s annual expenditure is funded externally.[/INDENT]
[INDENT][/INDENT]
Finally DFID settled the issue but naysayers (enemies of progress) are still making noises based on non-existent facts, are the Europeans willing to admit 90,000 economic refugees and give them jobs and welfare support?
[INDENT]But the Department for International Development insisted: "DFID does not give any money to Visit Rwanda or the Rwanda Development Board.[/INDENT]
[INDENT]“All UK aid to Rwanda is earmarked for specific programmes only, such as education and agriculture, and we track results to ensure value for money for UK taxpayers.[/INDENT]
[INDENT]"We are helping Rwanda to stand on its own two feet, building education systems that they invest in themselves, and supporting increased trade and investment to grow the economy.”[/INDENT]
[INDENT]The Rwanda Development Board said the Arsenal deal was part of a plan to double tourism - its largest source of foreign exchange.[/INDENT]
[INDENT]It has already created 90,000 jobs. A spokesman said its goal would only be met by marketing the country “in innovative ways”.[/INDENT]
[INDENT]Arsenal said the deal “will help Rwanda meet tourism goals and develop football in the country”. Rwanda gets £64m UK aid and gives £30m to Arsenal | World | News | Express.co.uk [/INDENT]
[INDENT][/INDENT]
Do you know of any place in the world where Rwanda can market its tourism industry for free, be it in a magazine, billboard, TV etc and reach a world wide audience of millions? Please do tell if you have a credible more cost effective solution.
Neo colonialism galore in this thread… It irritates and saddens me when I see Africans pull each other down. When you give me money do you want to dictate how I will use it? If you feel I am not utilizing it to the fullest suspend and cut all funding forthwith.
When I see someone trying to argue that kagame chose his favorite team, dnt know if he evolved from a homo pithecus yesterday or what coz that’s just dum. I would opt for a dictatorial state where pple live in peace and they prosper. Politics kill economies hence the populace become kibra and mathare massive.
Bob Marley - Redemption song.