The State minister for sports Hon. Peter Ogwang officiated at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Afcon 2027 training grounds last week. The function held at the Makerere University main sports grounds saw the construction of seven training grounds in Kampala, Hoima, Lira and Gulu launched.
According to Ogwang, all the grounds are meant to be undertaken by the UPDF engineering brigade within six months right from the date of commissioning.
“Already Makerere University, the contractor has received three quarters of the money and all other grounds; money is there,” he revealed.
Dr. Bernard Patrick Ogwel, the National council of sports (NCS) General secretary broke down the expected government expense on the respective grounds.
Ogwel noted that Makerere University grounds will cost the government Shs21.8bn and so far Shs14.6bn has been released to the ministry of defense and veteran affairs. Kyambogo will cost Shs19bn and all the money has been paid with the second phase already ongoing, Shs13.2bn will be spent on Hoima grounds, Shs 13.2bn to be spent on Gulu, Shs20.2bn to be spent on Masindi stadium because it will have a tartan running truck and other amenities planned.
Lira, Pece, Gulu university and Sir Tito Winyi will cost Shs13.2bn in the planning and budget approved by the cabinet.
“The government is to spend UGX1.5 Trillion in the three budget cycles to sports – majorly infrastructure development ahead of the Afcon 2027. You can see how Uganda will be ready to host the tournament. There is massive political goodwill and the president together with the First Lady have been very supportive and have ensured the monies are availed,” noted Ogwel.
The seven grounds add to the Namboole and Hoima stadium training grounds.
The National council of sports (NCS) Chairman Ambrose Tashobya says that it was deliberate for the government to work with public universities and schools to develop Afcon 2027 training grounds.
“If you want to develop and identify talents, you need to work with the education institutions. For Uganda to take this bold step in line with the Afcon project to be able to do all these facilities around universities is taking a step in the right direction,” he noted.
According to the minister Ogwang, the plan has been to go for multisport.
“Before, it was mainly a football pitch but now there is a rugby, tennis and basketball dimension and we are going to look at swimming as a component to move along,” he explained.
Uganda is set to host the Afcon 2027 alongside Kenya and Tanzania and is mandated to have at least two host venues and a minimum of eight standard training pitches.
Namboole, Hoima are Uganda’s earmarked host venues alongside Akii Bua Olympic stadium under construction.
