Vivendi, a French mass media conglomerate headquartered in Paris, has signed a partnership deal with the Rwanda Development Board. The partnership will allow them to develop and occupy the Kigali Cultural Village (KCV), and it aligns with Rwanda’s plan to grow its annual receipts to $800 million by 2024.
The Rwanda Development Board leveraged the deal to lease the Kigali Cultural Village to Vivendi for 20 years. The Cultural Village which will be located at Rebero Hill in Kicukiro sector will be a means for Rwanda to expand its tourism sector. As it will be creating an avenue for new cultural entertainment. The project will also grant Rwandans access to good jobs and skill development.
The village site is situated on 30.1 hectares of land. This will create enough room to house the facilities that will showcase Rwanda’s prestigious nature, history, traditional lifestyle, biodiversity, and traditional and contemporary arts. The project is estimated at $40 million. Vivendi, however, will spend about $3-4 million during the first phase of the project that will be completed in 6 months.
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Vivendi’s decision to invest in Rwanda was birthed after investors with the President of Bolloré Holdings—Vivendi’s parent company, Cyrille Bolloré visited the country in January 2018. Now that the deal has succeeded, Vivendi will also build a 300-seater capacity modern cinema hall, 15,000-people open concert area, a food court, and a children’s gaming area.
The Kigali Cultural Village facility will depend on sustainable energy. The facilities will also host 19 movie sessions a week, live concerts, cultural and artistic festivals, seminars and conferences. Phase two of the project will birth Universal recording studios, Escape games, Gameloft E-gaming laboratory, and testing factory – a children’s playground, bars, and restaurants and the Canal Factory.
The Canal Factory which is part of Phase Two of the KCV is a modern compact TV, cinema and music recording studio. It will be solely for Rwandan talents and students who wish to venture into cinematography.
Vivendi Group is a subsidiary of French Bolloré Holdings. Bollorè Holdings is a digital entertainment-focused company that owns Canal+ Group, Universal Music Group, Editis, Havas, Gameloft, and Dailymotion. This project is Vivendi’s first investment in East Africa.
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