It was long overdue, but its finally here. World famous praise and worship leader, singer and pastor Don Moen will perform in Kigali for the first time early next year.

Moen will be the headline performer at the Kigali Praise Festival, slated for Sunday February 10th, at a yet-to-be-disclosed location in Kigali.

The event is being organised by RG-Consult, a local events company, in partnership with local telecom service provider MTN Rwanda.

Dubbed ‘MTN Kigali Praise Fest 2019 Edition One’, the concert will also feature local gospel sensation Israel Mbonyi, and AFLEWO, a local born again Christian worship team. AFLEWO is an acronym, for ‘Africa Let’s Worship, Rwanda Chapter”.

According to organisers, Kigali Praise Fest is designed as an annual thanksgiving, praise and worship event that will see the staging of a celebrated gospel artiste in concert in Rwanda every year. 

Speaking at a news conference at the MTN Centre in Nyarutarama on Tuesday, MTN Rwanda Chief Marketing Officer Richard Acheampong remarked:...

"We are always looking for avenues to connect our customers to their passion. We believe that many of them are passionate about Praise, and therefore we are pleased to partner to deliver another awesome experience for them”.

Gisele Phanny Wibabara, the head of Events, Promotion and Sponsorship at MTN, revealed that the concert was part of MTN Rwanda’s 20-year anniversary celebrations.

"We wanted to take this celebration to another level. If we’re celebrating 20 years we also want to celebrate it with different denominations through this concert. Yes, the concert will be in February next year, but still it will be an extension of these celebrations. We have been having different activities and promotions to mark our 20 years, so this is just a part of it.”

MTN launched operations in the Rwandan market in June 1998, and in June this year, it launched its 20 year anniversary celebrations under the theme; Turi Abanyu (We are with you).

Remmy Lubega, the CEO of RG Consult described the upcoming concert as "long overdue”:

"For the past five years, a lot of people have been trying to pursue Don Moen and it had been hard to get him down here. But this time around we managed to secure his signature, so today is a landmark as we celebrate not only Don Moen, but also our marriage with our new partners MTN for this annual event, hence the MTN Kigali Praise Fest.”

The event, he added, would act as an avenue for believers in Kigali to "commemorate the past year, and ask God to bless the following year through praise and worship”.

In a video clip confirmation of his upcoming concert, Don Moen said:...

"I am excited to come to Rwanda, land of 1,000 hills and smiles for the first time in February to stage the first edition of the Kigali Praise Festival. I look forward to seeing you all during the event”.

For his part, Israel Mbonyi said: "I am super excited about worshiping alongside Don Moen, one of the ministers I look up to, and whose music I grew up listening to.”

Tickets for the show are already on sale online, at www.rgtickets.com, while physical tickets will hit the stands at MTN customer service centres in Kigali next week.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw