Raoul Rugamba is the Managing Director for Hobe Agency and is also a producer of Hobe Rwanda projects that was part of the team that organised the Rwanda Day. The 27 year old talked to Sunday Magazine’s Sharon Kantengwa on his thoughts about the tourism and hospitality industry in the country.

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What made you shift from ICT to leisure and tourism investor?

I studied computer science and I have six years of experience from school of public health and was in charge of developing e-learning tools. Although this was my passion, I wanted to invest in tourism, but I didn’t have the time and means. 

I eventually shifted from the ICT world to a full entrepreneur that drove me into event management and production. The idea of Hobe Rwanda came in 2012 and since then we are trying to develop it and promote it. It is not where it is supposed to be and therefore there is still more we are trying to achieve.

Tell us about legacy lounge?

It’s simply an environment or lounge, we want to create where private individuals, sectors and investors can meet, relax and talk business. This is one of our other ways we are contributing to the leisure industry.

What has been your experience like?

I have been organising many big events, and the excitement of the people is what satisfies me. When we started, many young people were excited to be part of this thing and because it was run by young people they felt like they owned it.

I however think there is a lot to put together as regards to publicising our culture and I wish every Rwandan can contribute better to what we are doing. There is also a lot to be done in the tourism sector because of the infrastructural development happening in this country.

Do you have any upcoming plans?

We have many but this September we wanted to do a tour around the world and the one we are actually working on which we postponed due to Rwanda day was a tour in the US was a beautiful concept, fruitful and educative. In December we have Hobe Rwanda and we are still finalising some details and so by end of this month we will have a clear picture of how it is going to be.

Your final words

I would ask anyone who has any idea of how we can improve Hobe Rwanda to get in touch with us and we work together. It can be the culture but also a business side of it. We can make money while contributing to the culture.