The new French Ambassador to Rwanda, Antoine Anfré, has commended the role of Canal Plus Rwanda in provision of employment opportunities and affordable content distribution services to Rwandan citizens.
He made the remarks during his official visit to the firm’s headquarters in Kigali as part of a series of visits the top diplomat is conducting among French-owned companies operating in Rwanda.
Anfré noted that the content produced by Canal Plus has taken the Rwandan culture and current affairs to another level.
"Canal Plus has fostered the knowledge of Rwandan culture, current affairs and opportunities at an international level just as the Francophone world has been promoted in Rwanda,” he said.
Canal Plus is a content distributing company that has a much younger population, a very good gender balance (half-males and half-females) but also boast a multi-national staff with 85 percent being Rwandans, he said.
The French ambassador also reiterated the contribution of Canal Plus in fostering unity among people across different backgrounds and nationalities.
"When different people share the same platform where they can watch leisure and other programmes, they tend to have the same preferences and this enhances unity and social cohesion among them as it brings a common understanding between each other,” he added.
Commenting on the Ambassador’s visit, Sophie Tchatchoua, the Managing Director of Canal Plus Rwanda expressed gratitude towards the visit.
"He was just appointed an ambassador less than two months ago, but he chose to visit us so we are happy for this opportunity,” he said.
Coming to Rwanda
Canal Plus is a French content distribution company, and since its creation in 1984, it has managed to withstand stiff competition in Europe and other markets around the world.
The multi-lingual TV operator has established a strong market presence not only in Francophone Africa, but also in Anglophone and Portuguese-speaking Africa.
Upon setting its footprint in Rwanda a year ago, Canal Plus Rwanda came with an ambition to become the first paid TV Operator.
To achieve this, the content distributor came with Sophie Tchatchou as its managing director.
She brought a wide range of experience of ten years working with the Canal Plus family mainly in the West and Central African region in the marketing, business and communication positions.
As of now, 50 people are employed at the firm and the size of clients has doubled over the past year.
Also, ten local television channels were added, prices were lowered, and promotions have been introduced since the launch of the subsidiaries to make sure all Rwandan households are equipped with affordable offers and multi-disciplinary content cutting across sports, entertainment, movies for kids and soaps among others.