The plan to turn Kigali into a sports destination is beginning to take shape, as the recent investment in sports facilities such as the 10,000 seater-Kigali Arena continues to attract big sports events to the country.

Basketball has so far stood out as the one sport that government is investing in to lead the way.

This year alone, the country will host the inaugural Giants of Africa festival (GOA), and playoffs and finals of the Basketball Africa League, a 12-team tournament jointly sponsored by the NBA, Nike and the Jordan brand.

Although the conference tourism seems to be taking off, entertainment and recreation is still lagging somewhat.

The Minister of Infrastructure, Claver Gatete said the government will start developing the 35 hectares of land around Amahoro National Stadium into a sports village, as well as modernizing and upgrading the capacity of the existing sports amenities.

Amahoro will be upgraded from the current 25,000 seats to seat 44,000, to bring the stadium to global standard. Similar upgrades will be done to Petit Stade and the Paralympic stadium.

In the masterplan, that is already out, any non-sporting activity around the stadium land that stretches from the current Rwanda Biomedical Centre premises to the MTN offices at Rwahama, will be moved to create space for construction of more sports amenities.

Seven more tennis courts, an aqua centre, sports mall, cycling ways, a hotel, gyms and training facilities for several sports are planned. “We have mapped out all sports and come up with a masterplan to build a sports hub. All these will take off this year,” said Mr Gatete.

The week-long GOA takes place from August 16 to 22, and will bring together over 200 basketball players from Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Mali, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, DR Congo, South Sudan and Somalia.