President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni hailed the progress at the Hoima City stadium five months after its construction began as the country gears to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations alongside Kenya and Tanzania.
The stadium is one of those earmarked to host the tournament and has seen viable progress with Turkish company MS SUMMA promising to deliver it six months earlier than he scheduled time.
Presiding over the unveiling of the foundation stone, Museveni hailed MS SUMMA for the work done so far and promised more sports infrastructure.
“At first, we didn’t give sports priority because the economy was in a bad state and we had to prioritize basic sectors like health, education and the like,” said Museveni.
“This SUMMA seems to be a serious company, considering how much they have accomplished in a short period of time. I would like to congratulate them,” said the President, who confirmed that the Turks would embark on the second phase of the construction of Namboole Stadium, once they had wrapped up in Hoima.
Museveni alongside First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Janet Kataha Museveni also reacted to City Mayor Brian Kaboyo’s pleas to the government for construction of access roads to the stadium, the required standard Four- and Five-Star Hotels in order to host a tournament of Afcon’s magnitude and upgrading of Hoima referral Hospital .
He urged the Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to raise matters regarding the facilitation of building of new hotels in Hoima City, as well as boosting emergency health services and roads, in Cabinet next Monday
Mayor Kaboyo revealed that his city currently had only 1700 beds or thereabouts, but would need around 20,000 beds to accommodate the projected influx of visitors for the AFCON tournament in 2027
he President was confident the gap would be filled, citing the success story of the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) as a result of which the number of hotel beds in host city Kampala had grown from around 4000 prior-to, to upwards of 20000 during and after.
As per the plan confirmed by Ms SUMMA and the Minister of State for Sports, Hon. Peter Ogwang, the 20,000-seater main stadium and it’s running track, along with a 2000-seater mini-indoor arena, a 25-metre swimming pool, outdoor courts for basketball, volleyball, netball and the like, as well as another training pitch and a parking lot to accommodate more than 1000 cars will be handed over in December this year.
In the words of Turkey’s ambassador to Uganda, H.E Mehmet Fatih, who was in attendance, SUMMA were to deliver not just a stadium but a dream for the millions of youths in Uganda, and an attraction for thousands of visitors and investors.
