The government has set aside Shs30 billion this financial year, for the refurbishment of Nelson Mandela National Stadium (Namboole) in a phased manner, according to Dennis Mugimba, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Education and Sports.
The plan to renovate and upgrade Namboole has been long overdue as the Stadium Managing Director Jamil Ssewanyana has always come out and said that the facility has got outdated infrastructure like; floodlights that consume a lot of power, electrical installations that are not readily available on the market and poor sanitary facilities among other things.
Namboole was constructed by the Chinese and officially opened in 1997 with an estimated capacity of 35,000 people. However, 24 years down the road, the stadium has never seen any major renovations.
Being the home to the country’s national football team, the Cranes, the was a great cause for an alarm earlier this year as CAF inspected the stadium and deemed the facility unfit to host international games.
The facility had failed to meet both the continental body and world football governing body-FIFA standards, prompting the ban.
CAF highlighted the playing surface, size of the pitch, dressing rooms, floodlights, pavilion, technical bench, media centre, and parking among others that are in a bad state.
Cranes had to shift base to St Mary’s Stadium, a private facility owned by former FUFA President Lawrence Mulindwa. The move put the government in the spotlight hence Parliament ordered the Ministry Of Education and Sports through the National Council of Sports to start on the plan of renovating and upgrading the stadium.
With the Shs30b, gov’t intends to upgrade the facility to internationally acceptable standards.
Among the things to be installed are CCTV systems and real-time access controls (turnstiles) to monitor the stadium users on entering the stadium, during and after events.
Currently, the stadium is being used as an isolation and treatment centre for COVID-19.