President Yoweri Museveni is confident that Nakivubo and Namboole stadiums are capable of hosting a successful 2027 Africa Nations Cup tournament.

While addressing the media during an end-of-year media engagement at State House Entebbe on Friday, Museveni endorsed both stadiums as AFCON venues.

“We have Namboole, we have now repaired it. Some of our people are now working on Nakivubo on a PPP arrangement. There is a boy called Kiggundu.”  

Inside Nakivubo Stadium

“When AFCON came, it came with its bukwakulizo. Its conditions. One is you must have three international-level stadiums. But I already had two. I have got Namboole, ono omwana wange akoze Nakivubo (Ham Kiggundu), so I have two. So I am looking for one.”

Nakivubo Stadium has been completed. After visiting the stadium in November, the Minister of State for Sports Peter Ogwang encouraged private developers to emulate what Hamis Kiggundu had done with the Nakivubo stadium by investing in more sports facilities across the country.

Hamis Kiggundu at Nakivubo Stadium

Ogwang who represented the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni had just toured the facility alongside officials from the National Council of Sports led by the chairman Ambrose Tashobya, as well as others from FUFA led by the president Moses Magogo; ahead of its official commissioning by President Yoweri Museveni shortly.

“I’m extremely very impressed with what he has done as a private investor to construct a stadium of this magnitude. I’m happy now that when we talk about the AFCON 2027, I can now confirm Nakivubo as one of the facilities we are going to use alongside Namboole and another stadium we are going to construct in Hoima,” Ogwang said.

Nakivubo Stadium

Just like Ogwang, President Museveni believes that all that Uganda needs now is a third stadium –with a focus on constructing a standard stadium in Hoima. 

“In my head, I had Akii Bua. (But) then the AFCON people came and said the stadium has to be near a training ground and an international airport so that is how we changed because the airport had become the basic factor. That’s where the problem was. That’s how we went to Hoima.”

Namboole Stadium