{"id":672,"date":"2021-08-26T16:37:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T16:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate"},"modified":"2021-08-26T17:43:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T17:43:55","slug":"bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Melodie\u2019s Rwf1 billion deal sparks debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Rwanda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>When Food Bundles, a local online fresh food distribution company, announced a partnership deal with musician Bruce Melodie worth Rwf 1 billion on Wednesday, August 25, every member of the press at the presser was taken aback.<\/p>\n

The artist was said to be paid the money within two years during which the partnership will last. Journalists however, seemingly found it hard to believe how a Rwandan musician could reach an agreement worth such a huge amount of money, more so with a company that started operations in Rwanda six months ago.<\/p>\n

They started to browse how big the company is, their current investments, and revenues generated since they started operations. \u201cWhat kind of company are you, with the financial capacity to pay him a Rwf 1 billion within two years?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been talk that artists sign fake deals and are presented with fake cheques to just hype things, is this real?\u201d Those are questions that were addressed to both parties involved in the partnership deal to shed light.<\/p>\n

Food Bundles\u2019 founder, Dioscore Shikama, said that the company\u2019s strategy of working with Bruce is equal to the amount they agreed to give to help them grow not only in Rwanda but also reach their target regional international market, starting with the Middle East (UAE, Qatar) and East Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, the Rwf 1 billion comes with the vision we have in terms of accessing a bigger market and also it comes with the responsibilities we gave Bruce Melodie. Trust me, it\u2019s not easy, a lot of work in terms of outreach of consumers but we believe he can deliver,\u201d Shikama said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s no longer a local artist because his music is increasingly going beyond borders and he meets our targets to reach the international market,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The singer will be tasked to help the firm in brand awareness, marketing and product development. He will also be doing road shows, food festivals and other activities engaging farmers during the two years course.<\/p>\n

Dioscore Shikama founder of Food Bundle during the signing ceremony at Kigali Convention Center on August 25, 2021. \/ Dan Nsengiyumva<\/b><\/p>\n

With Bruce Melodie, the company targets to reduce farmers\u2019 harvest loss from the current 40 per cent to 10 per cent in the next two years and while also increasing the number of farmers it works with to 300,000 farmers after two years, from the current 3,000.<\/p>\n

The company has so far spent Rwf 1.5 billion used in research on the project, building business model and development of Food Bundles technology product while it is currently raising a seed capital of Rwf 3 billion from its partner investors from the United States, Canada and Europe.<\/p>\n

Shikama is confident that Bruce Melodie will help his company achieve its target revenues which is projected at Rwf 20 million a day, as long as the company can hit its target of making 10, 000 sales a day in the next two years from which they will be getting an average Rwf2, 000 per order.<\/p>\n

But how real is the deal?<\/b><\/p>\n

Word going around is that some local business companies and celebrities hype the deals they sign just to draw attention from both the media and the public at large.<\/p>\n

And, for a company that could not disclose its investment size and its current revenues, the Rwf 1 billion deal prompted journalists to ask both parties how real their deal is. Shikama explained that Food Bundles is an equity-based startup which works with international investors who get shares from the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have investors from the United States, Canada and Europe and that\u2019s why I said we are raising more money. But sometimes we don\u2019t put these numbers out there because we have different investors and it can affect one of our negotiations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Shikama said that the deal is real and worth it because the money that will be paid to Bruce Melodie within the agreed time is part of the company\u2019s investment raised from the investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce Melodie is an artist with a big brand and, in our metrics, he has a vast outreach to the people we want to reach. We see him as a person who can help us reach out to so many farmers and we see potential in him to help us grow our technology-based distribution than we can using traditional marketing strategy,\u201d explained Shikama.<\/p>\n

Lee Ndayisaba, the CEO of Clouds Entertainment that manages Bruce Melodie, said the deal is a result of what their singer has done for the past decade in music.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal is real and it is sad to hear some people feeling like it\u2019s a miracle. If it happens elsewhere, why not here then? It\u2019s not fake. We have been negotiating this deal for six months with our lawyers. It is real,\u201d Ndayisaba said.<\/p>\n

And the singer, who previously signed similar deals with big corporate firms like Kigali Arena and brewing company Brok, did not understand why people would question the amount described in the deal yet he is clearly reaping fruits of what he built for over ten years in music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing music for years and I think this is the right time to harvest from it. I never knew that a day like this would come and I would sign a deal like this. It all goes with blessing from God together with the job I am doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChoosing to work with me is not charity but because they trust that I will do the job well,\u201d he added<\/p>\n

There was no deal signing<\/b><\/p>\n

Partnership deals between concerned parties are normally signed before the media. However, the two did not wish to sign the deal at the venue, explaining it was advised by their lawyers.<\/p>\n

But, to Eric Kirenga Karengera, a local artist commonly known by stage name as Eric Soul, what\u2019s important is that the official from the company spoke to the press and confirmed the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is dispute or controversy later on …. time will tell,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, he described the deal as \u2018excellent\u2019 for the industry as it opens a path for the creative industry to explore new ways to harness and leverage their power according to their digital market value.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it could be USD 100, 000 or USD 1million or USD 1 billion\u2026it doesn’t matter … It’s the philosophy of the deal and their choice of investing into a Rwanda young creative with documented digital market value,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For a company like Food Bundles targeting to serve several countries in East Africa and Middle East, Eric Soul is positive that the company won\u2019t find it difficult to make returns if it can serve its target.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026in Kenya, it’s very easy for tech startups to raise USD10, 50 or 100 million dollars from Venture Capitalists…did you know the e-commerce startup ecosystem in Kenya managed to raise more than $220 million dollars despite the challenges Covid19? That’s just one country,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. When Food Bundles, a local online fresh food distribution company, announced a partnership deal with musician Bruce Melodie worth Rwf 1 billion on Wednesday, August 25, every member of the press at the presser was taken aback. The artist was said to be paid the money within two years during which the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,761,28],"tags":[760,763,947,758,946],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-bruce","tag-rwanda","tag-sparks-debate"],"yoast_head":"\nBruce Melodie\u2019s Rwf1 billion deal sparks debate - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Food Bundles, a local online fresh food distribution company, announced a partnership deal with musician Bruce Melo ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bruce Melodie\u2019s Rwf1 billion deal sparks debate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Food Bundles, a local online fresh food distribution company, announced a partnership deal with musician Bruce Melo ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-26T16:37:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-26T17:43:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6127d28caedc9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Bruce Melodie\u2019s Rwf1 billion deal sparks debate\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-26T16:37:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-26T17:43:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate\"},\"wordCount\":1169,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2021\/08\/img-6127d28caedc9.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Bruce\",\"Rwanda\",\"sparks debate\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bruce-melodies-rwf1-billion-deal-sparks-debate\",\"name\":\"Bruce Melodie\u2019s Rwf1 billion deal sparks debate - 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