Makerere University, National Council of Sports seal deal for Shs. 29b Afcon 2027 training ground construction

As preparations for the hosting of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations continues, National Council of Sports and Makerere University have a signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see the construction of a standard training facility at the university.

The MUK main sports ground is among the four training pitches alongside Namboole (outside pitch), Kyambogo University and Kadiba selected for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

The tournament is supposed to be jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda – which also hopes to use Hoima City Stadium, under construction at the moment.

“Government will sink about Shs1.5 trillion in sports infrastructure development ahead of the Africa Cup,” State Minister for Sports Peter Ogwang, said at a function held to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the institution and government, through National Council of Sports (NCS), in preparation for the works set to start in July.

“We are grateful to be here today because initially, (Ministry of) Finance had not given us money on time and we had started to look for a private investor (to construct an alternative ground),” Ogwang added.

MUK Vice Chancellor who on behalf of the institution signed along with University Secretary Yusuf Kiranda couldn’t hide excitement revealing it’s a dream come true.  

“I was involved in the designs to uplift the grounds to a stadium 30 years ago. We have been looking for money to do it, over $25b (about Shs100b).

“In fact, when I was sharing my programmes for the university when I was bidding to come to this office, I included it as one of the things I would do. But I had started to fear that I would leave without implementing this plan.

“We are especially happy that NCS agreed to follow our plan. It is a comprehensive plan. And we are happy because Makerere values sports and we cannot overemphasize the role sports plays in grooming future leaders,” Nawangwe said.

UPDF’s engineering brigade which is constructing Kyambogo and also oversaw the renovation of Namboole back to acceptable international standards has been tasked to do the job.

The facility will have a football pitch fitted with dressing rooms and eight-lane athletics track and will have seating capacity of over 1,000 spectators.

The ground will also have floodlights (800 lux), standby generation (250kVA), 100,000l water tanks.

Tashobya and NCS general secretary Bernard Patrick Ogwel signed on behalf of government.

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