President Paul Kagame is expected to join Masai Ujiri, the General Manager of NBA’s Toronto Raptors, who is also the founder of the Giants of Africa project, for the official inauguration of the “Ujuri courts,”.
The ‘Ujiri Courts’ is a proposed project by Masai Ujiri; according to Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Ujiri courts is part of the grand proposal is to build a sporting hub consisting of a 4-star boutique hotel, basketball courts, retail stores, as well as food and beverage areas on approximately 2.4 hectares of land in Kigali.
While details of the initial investment have not been disclosed, the facility is set to be located in Remera neighborhood, Gasabo district, commonly known as the former premises of the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC), along the Amahoro stadium.
Masai Ujiri currently owns the 2.4 hectares plot after he was granted a freehold land title by the government in 2020.
Freehold land title refers to a property title by which the owner of the land owns for perpetuity. In other words, freehold land title ownership has no limit in time for the landowner and its beneficiaries.
The changing face of Remera “sports hub”
Ujiri courts comes at a time when several sports and related infrastructure are being set up in the area to further realize the idea of Kigali Sports Hub.
“This is a great addition not only for our sports tourism, but also the current efforts of setting up a booming Kigali sports hub,” said Lucky Philip, a senior investment promotion officer at Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
“This is also a revamp of the area, where we continue to see state of art facilities for sports development” he added.
Ujiri’s impact on basketball in Rwanda stretches beyond the Ujiri courts. In Rwanda, the 53-year-old was key in attracting the BK Arena investment as well as introducing the Giants of Africa (GOA) camps.
GOA is a basketball camp founded by Masai Ujiri as a platform to explore and nurture basketball talent among African youth.
It started in 2003 in Nigeria but in 2014 Ujiri introduced it to the rest of Africa.
