Rwanda Signs €10m Deal With French Club PSG

French league champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) will on Wednesday evening unveil their new partnership with Rwanda at their game against Nantes.

PSG will be a promoter of “Visit Rwanda” over the next three years. The deal is similar to one existing with British team Arsenal.

“For three seasons, the Paris Saint-Germain community and the world will have a unique opportunity to experience Rwanda’s breath-taking beauty, creative culture, innovative environment, and modern and distinctive Made in Rwanda products through unprecedented and creative communications,” said PSG in a statement on its site.

According to French publication Le FIGARO, Rwanda will pay between €8m to €10m (Rwf 10billion) to PSG for the partnership.

With it, PSG will advertise Rwanda’s touristic potential to the millions of French supporters and millions other French speakers developed countries like in Canada. All these are potential visitors to Rwanda.

With Rwanda having been painted by French media over the past 25 years as a place of war and genocide, where French soldiers intervened, the partnership with PSG means the French will be seeing a different country.

PSG top players Kylian Mbappé, Neymar, and Angel Di Maria will in the next few months be headed to Rwanda. Usually these visits come with huge global publicity.

When Rwanda signed a similar deal with Arsenal, it was the first of its kind. Rwanda and Arsenal have a “non-disclosure agreement” not to reveal the financial aspects, but reports said it was worth £30m (about Rwf 40billion).

“We are aware of opinions that have in the past considered such an investment by a country like Rwanda, unnecessary and costly,” said Clare Akamanzi, the CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB), in defense of the PSG deal.

“However, such suggestions are based on lack of awareness of the impact it has on economic development. We are confident in our decisions.”

“Every year, we see growth of our tourism and export products, which indicates that the marketing efforts are paying off, as we saw with the huge success in the arsenal deal. This is why we can afford to invest in other marketing partnerships such as with PSG.”

PSG has over 75m followers on the different social media platforms, all of whom will be bombarded with Rwanda messages.

Considering how impactful the Arsenal deal has been, with “Visit Rwanda” being beamed at all its games on TV and inside the stadiums, millions have been attracted to a country they never knew.

Here is a full statement by PSG

Rwanda and Paris Saint-Germain: More than a partnership