Kenya is fast becoming a lucrative ground for Ugandan event organisers. Quietly top-tier Ugandan powerhouses Entertainment events firms such as Fenon Events, Swangz Avenue, and Talent Africa Group have already set offices in Nairobi. The wave seems to continue picking up momentum.
We recently caught up with Paul Atwine, founder and executive director of SEEV AFRICA, a Kigali-based events outfit that has also set its sights on the Kenyan market. After organising Davido’s 2025 concert in Kigali and the Basketball Africa League after parties, SEEV Africa is set to expand its tentacles to Kenya.
Next month, SEEV Africa will make its Kenyan debut when it hosts its first event, Spin The Block – R&B and Oldskool, in Nairobi at the MassHouse.
If I asked your wife what you do, what would she say?
I’m not entirely sure what answer she would give. She might say I’m a hotel marketer from my time working with hotels as a digital communications strategist. She’d also probably say I’m an events organiser. Or maybe a lawyer because of law degree.
It’s not the straightest line on paper, you know. After my law degree from Makerere University, I veered off and taught myself digital marketing and communications. That got me into the Rotary space, where I found myself surrounded by a wide network of professionals and began having all these creative ideas about events. From there, I ventured into hospitality as a brand manager for a boutique hotel in Uganda. That’s really where ideas on curating experiences, culture, and hosting people began to take shape. I remember hosting artistes like Bien-Aimé, Sauti Sol, and Nameless whenever they were in Kampala to perform. Being part of those moments, being behind the scenes, making everything come together, pulled me deeper into the world of events.
So, when do you do your first event?
November 2016. I was brought on by Aly Alibhai, the CEO of Talent Africa Group, to manage the Bellaire account. The wine brand had just entered the East African market and I was assigned to spearhead its campaigns in Uganda. Then in 2017, when Talent Africa secured the PR campaign for Major Lazer’s Uganda show, I was handed the assignment again. The ticket sales for the event were doing badly despite there being a House music fan base in Uganda. I came up with a strategy to increase sales; for every four tickets bought, we gave an extra one for free. We ended up selling out the 2,000-capacity venue.
When Covid hit, I moved into public health, joining an international NGO where I designed behaviour change and marketing campaigns. It was a different world, but one that sharpened how I think about impact on society. In 2023, I was headhunted to move to Rwanda as the marketing director for Ironman, the global triathlon franchise. My focus was on partnerships and sponsorships, building bridges, aligning brands, and making big ideas bankable.
Nigerian artiste Davido, real name David Adeleke, performs at the 30 Billion Concert in Nairobi on November 24, 2018. Davido’s 30 Billion World Tour is coined after his 2017 hit single "If", which had the catchy phrase ‘30 billion for your account’. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO.
How costly was setting up Davido’s concert?
That meant getting creative fast. We went heavy on promotion, and Davido made that part easier. He’s not just an artiste, he’s a shrewd businessman. Unlike many others, he didn’t ask for a down payment before we could even start marketing. Instead, he proposed a revenue-sharing model that worked in our favour. He even absorbed some major costs on his end, like covering the costs of his private jet. On top of that, we negotiated a healthy split from ticket sales.
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You would have to pay the full price. First, you reach out to check on his availability on the dates you want him. Once that is done, you pay a deposit and agree on deliverables. We would have needed a budget of not less than $500,000 (Sh64 million).
In Kigali, we have been hosting the Spin and The Block editions that have been quite a success. It's basically a lifestyle brand where we curate R&B events with a good experience meant to bring people together to network. Its isn’t just about having fun, but an event where you can also enrich your social capital, which might prove useful to you in the future. That is the impact we are looking at. So why Kenya? Well, the idea is to grow the event into a bigger franchise and have it in many cities. We are doing an Africa tour, and if there is a city you would want to expand to in East Africa, then it’s no brainer, Nairobi. Nairobi has a vibrant R&B culture, and if you are talking about R&B and “ol skool”, then Nairobi is the Mecca of the sound in the region. It also has the largest pool of artistes in the region doing R&B sound. Our vision is that hosting Spin The Block in Nairobi on April 5th, which is during the Easter celebrations, will give a huge lift to this African Tour.
In our first edition in Rwanda, we sold it through a B2B approach. I managed to convince 20 CEOs to buy 20 tables for their friends and families. The cheapest table sat six people and cost $450 (Sh58,000), then we also had tables of eight and ten. With that, you would get an assortment of bubblies, premium whiskeys and bitings. But we also sold single-entry tickets. That is how we designed this experience, and there was a good return on investment because we doubled the investment. We had targeted only 500 but got 800. In the second edition, we hit 1,000 people.
Considering everything, including booking artistes, the investment injected as of now is more than $5,000 (Sh640,000). But with events, there are small operational costs that can double the figure.
