‘The Residence Africa’ reality TV show won’t come to Kigali

‘The Residence Africa’ reality TV show won’t come to Kigali as earlier planned, The New Times has established. The development was confirmed by filmmaker Willy Ndahiro who in the first place won hosting rights to bring the contest to Kigali. The reality TV show, which is a project initiated by Nigerian company ‘African Network Entertainment Limited, was expected to begin on February 13 bringing together a total of 24 contestants, including 12 males and 12 females, from 12 countries across Africa, including host nation Rwanda. A delegation of Nigerians representing the company were in Rwanda in March last year looking for possibilities to bring the reality TV show to Kigali. However, Ndahiro said that the contest won’t come to Kigali due to the fact that the organisers had no clear agenda about the reality TV show in Rwanda despite the fact that they presented a ‘fantastic’ project on table. The company was planning to open offices in Rwanda this year and Ndahiro was already tipped to represent them in Rwanda. However, since they were denied rights to operate in Rwanda, the filmmaker hasn’t heard from them after the government rejected their proposal to invest in their project with an imminent target to boost the Visit Rwanda campaign. “I haven’t heard from them for months since they were denied rights to bring the reality TV show to Rwanda. Their project was pretty good enough for Rwanda to welcome it but they had no clear agenda about it and hence the government questioned their operations,” Ndahiro said in an interview. “To operate in Rwanda, you need to be serious by showing a clear plan for what you are bringing to the table. They have a good project, but the problem remains that they want us to invest in the project at 100 percent. No one can afford to risk such millions of francs with no clear hope for returns,” claimed Ndahiro. Had it been given the green light to come to Kigali, ‘The Residence Africa’ reality show was expecting to borrow ‘Big Brothers format where each eligible country would front two or more contestants who would then be put together in an isolated house for a period of 48 days. The show organisers had, however, earlier agreed that they would respect Rwandas cultural values where contestants would share the same space but sleep in different rooms based on gender. In the house, contestants normally avoid being evicted by viewers to remain in pole position to win a large cash prize at the end of the show. Two best performing contestants would be awarded. With the failed attempt to lure The Residence Africa reality TV show to Kigali, Rwanda will wait for some time to have a representative at a continental reality TV show. The last time a Rwandan attended a reality TV show was in 2014 when comedian Arthur Nkusi and musician Frankie Joe contested in the Big Brother Africa season 9 held in Johannesburg.