Ex-NBA exec plans sports hotel chain after $26M Rwanda launch

August 13, 2025 / Billboard Lifestyle /

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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.

Ujiri’s Zaria Group is backed by the African private equity firm Helios Investment Partners, which manages funds totaling $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 said he hopes to fix by increasing the number of venues where African artists can perform.

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Africa’s hotel sector has experienced notable growth in recent years. In 2024, 59 hotels and resorts belonging to international chains including Hilton, Marriott, and Radisson opened in Africa, double the number that opened in 2023, according to research firm W Hospitality Group.

More than 570 new hotel projects with more than 104,000 rooms are in development on the continent this year, 13% more than last year, W Hospitality said. A few years ago, the year-on-year increase in new hotel developments in Africa was in single-digit percentages, the firm noted.

The hotel sector’s growth underscores Ujiri’s ambition to “be all over Africa” with properties that serve the sports and entertainment audiences. His new 80-room hotel in Kigali features a 2,000-seat arena for basketball and concerts, two five-a-side football pitches, a gym and wellness center, as well as a sports bar and playground park. Its 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.

Born to a Nigerian father and Kenyan mother, Ujiri has been establishing himself as an African sports stakeholder since 2003 with his Giant of Africa Festival — an annual event that uses basketball camps to drive youth empowerment and leadership programs.

But in shifting from a philanthropic approach that has previously included building 100 basketball courts in Africa to owning a hotel business, Ujiri aims to explore Africa’s untapped sports market. “In Africa, we don’t see sports as a business while other industries — technology, banking — are growing.” He wants to turn that around.

Alexander’s view

As a former NBA franchise administrator with two-decades of operating experience in Africa, Ujiri appears to have the tools that will make his venture succeed. And starting in Rwanda holds particular promise. Tourism and travel contributed $1.3 billion to Rwanda’s economy in 2024, a new high according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, and the body expects tourism’s contribution to the economy to rise by 13% this year.

Sports occupies a central role in Rwandan tourism: Since 2019, Basketball Africa League events in Kigali have put the country on the map as a sports destination, making a strong case for businesses that seek to draw in a sporting audience to set up shop there. Rwanda’s bid to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix, the international car race event that draws a global audience of enthusiasts and celebrities, would further add to its appeal for hospitality businesses.

But while the Zaria Group has been warmly welcomed by the Rwandan government, other African countries may not be as receptive, something Ujiri is already factoring in for how he plans projects in other cities. He acknowledges that he might need to raise more private funding, though negotiations will still be key. “All these places need this, you know, so we’re going to talk to all these governments,” he told me.

Room for Disagreement

Using Rwanda as a testing ground for an African hotel chain has its pitfalls, as the country is currently under intense global scrutiny for its involvement in regional conflicts including in neighboring DR Congo. The conflict there has led at least one of Kigali’s European partners, the German football club Bayern Munich, to end a sponsorship deal with the country’s tourism board Visit Rwanda.