Come February 18, Nollywood’s famous comedian duo Chinedu Ikedieze aka Aki, and Osita Iheme, aka Paw-paw of the Aki Na Ukwa fame. The duo will be in the country from February 11 -18, to launch a project called, ‘One Africa Connect’ that aims at connecting Africa’s entertainment industry through training and screening actors. The lucky ones will have an opportunity to act in different movies with Aki, Pawpaw and some of top Nollywood actors. “We started with Rwanda and Nigeria in what we called “Naija-Rwanda Connect”. As you know, Nigeria is leading in Africa in as far as entertainment is concerned. It’s in that regard that Nollywood stars Aki and Pawpaw, wished to come to Rwanda and work with us in improving our movie industry,” said Belinda Umurerwa, the managing director of Kigali Entertainment Promoters, a company that is partnering with the Nollywood stars on the project. Nollywood’s famous duo in one of their movie scenes. Net. Aki and Pawpaw will also stage a comedy show February 14, at Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village (Camp Kigali), and thereafter have three-day training with people in the movie industry, and others that wish to join. They will return to Nigeria on February 18, and come back in March, for their first drama series called, ‘The Big Tea’. Production of the projects will be done in Lagos, Nigeria. However, Umurerwa noted that there is a plan to establish a studio in Rwanda, where all productions will be done. According to Umurerwa, Aki and Pawpaw picked interest in Rwanda, after a few discussions that her company had together with Grand Synopsis, a company in Nigeria that works closely with the duo. “We sat down and identified a few things that needed to be worked on to improve the movie industry in Rwanda,” she said. “The idea is to ensure that the industry in Rwanda is at an international standard. We want to see our Rwandan artists on an international level. We need to see some of our stars recognised internationally,” Umurerwa added. She dubbed the project as one that has come to change the face of entertainment in Rwanda, where Rwanda will have better local content on local television channels. editorial@newtimes.co.rw.
