Flaunt Weeekly
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has bowed to pressure from Bongo Flava’s Diamond Platnumz to build a modern arena for concerts in the country.
The recent Trace Music Summit and Awards held in Zanzibar left more than to be desired after the concert stage kept crumbling, something Diamond argues left the host country looking egg-faced in the eyes of the caliber of guests who graced the event, ranging from high-profile international music executives, presidents of some of the world’s biggest music record labels, international music producers and other music stakeholders.
“Trace had a hard time setting up the concert stage in Zanzibar, the setup kept crumbling down, it was embarrassing, especially considering the kind of high-profile guests we were hosting for the event.” Vented Diamond after the conclusion of the summit last month.
He added, “The government needs to save us from such embarrassments in the future by building us an arena. We need this infrastructure to create a friendly environment for future investors. They may never want to return after what happened with Trace.”
Responding to Diamond’s concerns this week, Tanzanian government spokesman George Msigwa, who is also the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Arts and Culture, said they had finally acquired funds to build the arena.
“The president went to South Korea and secured a soft loan of $2.5 billion. Out of this, the President has decided that Tsh450 billion ($172 million) will be used first to build the arena and secondly, we will build a film village. I fully understand Diamond’s frustration on this issue, he has brought it to my attention on several occasions, arguing that it is not fair for the government to continue building football stadiums while neglecting the plight of musicians,” Msigwa said.
The same debate is raging in Kenya, where actor and screenwriter Abel Mutua is leading the charge to get the government to build a concert arena similar to the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, which has hosted a hive of international stars, most recently American songwriter and singer John Legend.
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