The National Council of Sports (NCS) has received the Sir Tito Winy site from the Church of Uganda and handed it over to the UPDF Engineering Brigade for immediate development into the first ever National Sports Academy in Uganda.
This Sir Tito Winy site, a part of the training grounds cluster that will serve Hoima City Stadium during AFCON 2027, will cost Shs17bn for the first phase of construction.
NCS Board Chairman Ambrose Tashobya, presiding over the handover ceremony in place of the Honourable Minister of State for Sports Peter Ogwang said that this will be the most important of all the facilities that are being concurrently developed across the country at the moment.
NCS has acquired a chunk of 100 acres off the vast Sir Tito Winy expanse, and is ready for more should the church be willing to allow for further acquisition.
NCS General Secretary Dr. Bernard Ogwel noted that three floodlit grass pitches, one artificial turf, a running track, a multi purpose hall with changing rooms and other facilities, a power house, ICT installations, a parking lot and access roads, among others, will not only serve AFCON but later morph into a massive grooming ground and conveyor belt churning out world class athletes in football, rugby, track and field and other indoor and outdoor sports have been earmarked.
“It will also be a facility for training coaches and other technical support for athletes and teams,” he revealed.
Tashobya spoke of setting up an education centre as part of the academy, but beseeched Sir Tito Winy Secondary School to work towards becoming a school of sports excellence themselves using the facility.
The academy is a long-term legacy project of AFCON 2027, but of immediate priority is the training ground for the tournament which is to be developed by the UPDF engineering brigade.
Project manager Lt. Col. Eng. Peter Seku Kidemuka has committed to executing in six months, under the supervision of the Ministry of Works.
The UPDF Engineering Brigade that had received the Kadiba Stadium in Kampala the day before, are already working on Kyambogo University and Makerere University (Namboole cluster), Boma Grounds and Masindi (Hoima City Stadium), Lira University, Gulu University, Pece and Akii-Bua Olympic Stadium in Lira.
