A new $26 million sports-themed hotel in Rwanda that aims to tap into the country’s growing hospitality market will be a template for expanding other sporting businesses across Africa, the former National Basketball Association executive that spearheaded the project told Semafor.
Masai Ujiri, former vice president of NBA franchise Toronto Raptors and a retired basketball player, plans to build a collection of hotels in Africa following the opening of Zaria Court, his company’s first hotel property, in the Rwandan capital Kigali in July. The hotel’s opening was attended by Rwandan President Paul Kagame — whose government directly supported the project by allocating land for it — and Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian industrialist who is Africa’s richest man.
Ujiri’s Zaria Group is backed by the African private equity firm Helios Investment Partners, which manages funds totalling $3 billion. It plans to build at least four more properties modeled on its Rwandan debut, with sports and performance arenas as the anchor.
“We lack arenas on the continent, even in the big markets — there are no arenas in Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, and Abidjan,” Ujiri said, explaining that these will be target cities for his company. Sports “is suffering on the continent” due to a lack of facilities, a gap Ujiri hopes to fix by increasing the number of venues where African artists can perform.