In July, President Paul Kagame appointed Candy Basomingera as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Sports. Basomingera, 44, previously served as Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the Rwanda Convention Bureau (RCB). She joined the office now headed by Minister Nelly Mukazayire who succeeded Richard Nyirishema in December 2024 to lead what stands out as the team inherited to carry the sector to greater heights. Both Mukazayire and Basomingera have professional backgrounds in the tourism sector. People associated with both sports and tourism were convinced that the duo’s appointments are seen as a deliberate move to align Rwanda’s sports sector with the country’s broader ambitions in sports tourism, attracting investment, and generating revenue from sporting events. ALSO READ: Who is Basomingera, the new Sports Ministry Permanent Secretary? “These are exciting times in Rwanda when we can compete, empower youth and still have an eye on direct contribution through sports tourism as an economic driver,” said Brian Kirungi, a sports entrepreneur behind Patriots Basketball Operations. Rwanda is leveraging sports to drive socio-economic transformation. The country has been extensively working on various aspects of the sector including the creation of global sporting partnerships as part of the country’s broader development strategy. In December 2024, while presiding over the swearing in of Mukazayire as new sports minister among other cabinet members, Kagame tasked the new team to find ways to generate resources from sports, which he described as a business based on talent. “Currently, sports is a business based on talent, among Rwandans, or other people elsewhere. There is a way that talent is traded and generates resources. That is our goal,” he said. According to the head of state, that is why there are some infrastructures that the country set up to facilitate the sports sector. Currently, Rwanda has a 45,500-seat capacity Amahoro Stadium (after its renovation completed mid-2024 to increase its previous 25,000-seat capacity), and a 10,000-seater BK Arena, among other world-class sports facilities. For Jean-Luc Cyusa, the president of United Generation Basketball (UGB), the new sports ministry team possesses a combined experience and exposure in the sports and hospitality sectors equipping them to make the necessary decisions towards the improvement of the sector. “Specific areas such as professionalizing the various leagues by facilitating the right partnerships between local teams and private investors in the corporate world, philanthropy, and media houses will allow federations and teams to attract investments to operate without depending on the ministry of sports budget,” Cyusa told Times Sport. He added that the new team being young and dynamic is in the right position to create the right development centres for the youth who promise to be future professional athletes by leveraging on the existing and upcoming facilities owned by the ministry and other important sports stakeholders such as schools and universities i.e. the push for sports scholarships. With such a young and energetic leadership team, he said, there is no doubt that Rwanda will soon become a continental giant in the sports world. From a tourism perspective, Jamila Uwimana Gashaka, the General Manager of Heritage Safaris Ltd, believes that in Mukazayire and Basomingera, who she both refers to as tourism heavyweights, the government has a clear message that the country is betting big on sports tourism. “It's a smart play. Who better to sell our stadiums, cycling routes, and marathons to the world than people who've sold Rwanda as a must-visit destination?” she asked. “I believe their expertise and efforts could bring in global events, tourism revenue, and new infrastructure which attract international visitors, promote the destination globally, and stimulate investment in infrastructure that benefits both locals and tourists,” she added. For Uwimana, the youthful team also already possesses networks in hospitality, travel, and event promotion, which might help secure hosting rights for continental or global sporting events, and attract private-sector sponsorship for example the latest Giants of Africa Festival and BAL to mention but a few. Sports development and tourism is one of the development strategies in many countries, for example, in Qatar, sports were used not just as entertainment but as economic diversification. The Gulf state invested over $220 billion in infrastructure for the FIFA World Cup 2022. While critics questioned the cost, the returns came in soft power, global brand value, and an explosion of tourism and new business ventures. The United Arab Emirates used a similar model. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have become homes for F1 races, elite tennis tournaments, golf championships, and UFC fights, turning sports into a multi-billion-dollar pillar of the economy. And South Africa, after the 2010 FIFA World Cup, saw a jump in tourism, job creation, and infrastructure value that lasted years after the final whistle.
