The government has shifted priority from building a new stadium to rehabilitation and expansion of National Amahoro Stadium.

This means building of the proposed Gahanga Olympic Stadium has been put on hold as finances will now be directed to rehabilitation of Amahoro National Stidium.

The Rwf2 billion state-of-the-art sport arena will be built next to the current national stadium and is expected to be home to major tournaments, mainly tennis, volleyball and basketball. In addition, the facility would host major concerts.

Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA), which will be the caretaker of the project said in addition to rehabilitation of the national stadium which involves setting up a rooftop to protect spectators from extreme weather, the second activity involves setting up the 10,000 seater gymnasium.

Eric Serubibi, director general of RHA, told Rwanda Today that the work has already commenced and had set June this year as the deadline for work. The works are being undertaken by Summa — a Turkish construction company.

This is the same firm that built the Multi Purpose Kigali Convention Centre.

“Together with the Turkish constructor, we have set June, 2019 as the deadline and the contractor has set proper, internal, arrangements to meet the deadline, there is an agreed financing model between Government of Rwanda and the contractor which will be disclosed later,” he said.

According to Mr Serubibi, the construction of the facility if in line with the government’s plan to support sports across the country.

Initially, the Arena was supposed to have been up and running by June last year since the government had planned to project world cup tournament for revellers but due to financial constraints, the budget had to be carried forward in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

However, the government is make a decision on the fate of Gahanga stadium project, which was commissioned in 2015 but fours years later, is yet to take off.

Reacting on the progress of the work, Mr Serubibi said plans to build the stadium are still under consideration although the deadline to have it fully constructed was pushed to 2024. Mr Serubibi said the deadline was pushed back due to financial constraints because the government will be required to secure up to $120million to complete the project.

“The Gahanga project is still among the priorities of seven years of government project, which are ongoing until 2024 and the final decision and arrangements will come after the completion of the arena,” added Mr Serubibi.