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Collecting Society

Rwanda Society of Authors

Rwanda's first collective management organisation, dissolved in 2025 after 13 years of low payouts.

Based in
Kigali, Rwanda
Founded
2010
Website

The Rwanda Society of Authors (RSAU) was Rwanda’s first collective management organisation, established by Rwandan artists in 2010 with backing from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Sports and Culture and the Rwanda Development Board, and registered with the RDB that May.

Over its 13-year run, RSAU distributed royalties only three times: Rwf8 million to 80 artists in 2019, Rwf18 million in 2021 and Rwf24 million in 2023, sums many members considered too small and too opaque. The organisation was dissolved in early 2025 amid mismanagement concerns; Rwanda’s Minister of Youth and Arts, Jean-Nepo Abdallah Utumatwishima, confirmed afterward that a legal framework was being explored for a new, law-established national body to take over its functions.

RSAU’s former website is no longer live; its record here reflects a defunct collecting society, retained for historical reference.

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