Samia’s AFCON budget in pipeline

TANZANIA: AS President Samia Suluhu Hassan and the country celebrate her third year in office, there are many things to explore.

Her administration is soon going to approve a special budget for infrastructure development ahead of 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals.

Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are gearing up to jointly host what would probably be the best AFCON finals ever after winning the privilege to organise the contest in 2027.

However, as one way to ensure that the country has admirable infrastructures, it was recently announced by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for Culture, Arts and Sports Gerson Msigwa that a special budget for AFCON is in offing.

“This budget will help us to complete renovation works at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam which is among the venues set to host some of the AFCON games as such, we want to update it.

“We are going to remove all available 60,000 seats at the stadium and replace them with brand new folding seats that will completely transform it not forgetting installing enough surveillance cameras around the venue for security purposes,” Msigwa said.

He added that the incoming budget will also help to complete construction of the new stadium in Arusha which he said the ministry is planning to name it Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan Stadium upon completion.

“We have proposed to name the Arusha stadium after her and if she accept the proposal, then the venue will be Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan Stadium whose capacity will be 30,000 spectators,” he said.

Adding, Msigwa said the upcoming AFCON budget will also be channelled the to finish construction of Sports and Recreation Centres being constructed in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma respectively.

According to him, these enters have two football pitches one has artificial turf while the other is made of natural grass and they have Olympic size swimming pools including an Indoor Stadium.

“All these infrastructures are essential for the growth of sports in the country and it is good to see that they are being under the Presidency of Samia who is serious when it comes to sports excellence,” he said.

He added that President Samia has already insisted that she does not want the 2027 AFCON finals to just pass by without leaving behind a trace.

“Ivory Coast hosted the 2023 AFCON finals and in their budget, they managed to construct five new stadia, new Airport Terminal and good roads connecting the venues. “

This is the legacy that people of Ivory Coast will cherish forever and President Samia would like the same thing to happen here that is why a lot of investment in sports infrastructures will be achieved under her leadership,” Msigwa noted.

On his part, former football player Bakari Malima also appreciated good works done by the existing administration in terms of scaling up sport standards in the country.

“In order to be the best in this sector, we need to have adequate infrastructures and there is no country bin the world that has made it big in sports without investing in it.

“Countries like Morocco, Egypt, South Africa and many others are doing well in sports simply because they have abundant sport infrastructures and we want this to happen in the country,” he said.