Final preps at Munyonyo as host Uganda gears up for NAM, G77 summits
Jan 11, 2024
The summit brings together 120 countries and observers, and Uganda is expected to host about 5,000 delegates.
Final preparations at the Speke Resort Convention Centre Munyonyo (Photos by Eddie Ssejjoba)
Eddie Ssejjoba
Journalist @New Vision
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Workers were on Thursday making final touches at the Speke Resort Convention Centre Munyonyo, the venue of this year’s Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, which officially kicks off on Monday next week (January 15).
The summit brings together 120 countries and observers, and Uganda is expected to host about 5,000 delegates.
The NAM summit will be immediately followed by the G77 summit.
Dr Sudhir Ruparelia, the Ruparelia Group Chairman and co-founder of the mega project spent the biggest part of Thursday morning and afternoon seated at the site and was seen busy attending to visitors and clients in front of the center, which has been lit with glittering expensive lamps at the main entrance and inside the building.
Delegates are expected to start arriving soon. Journalists from various media houses, guided by David Sserumaga, an official from the media center were allowed to take pictures and shoot videos outside but because workers were busy inside, they were asked to go back on Saturday when the building will be open to visitors.
The structural works started in November 2022 and Sudhir assured the country that the building would be ready by January 2024.
The project has been undertaken through Sudhir's two subsidiaries, Speke Hotels and Meera Investments.
The main auditorium has a capacity of between 3,800 – 4,400 delegates. It has a multipurpose hall, 12 high-end conference and breakaway meeting rooms and a floating restaurant that accommodates more than 900 people.
Workers making sure all is set for the event
The government of Uganda is implementing the joint project through the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) at 50-50 per cent.
The resort, seated on 105 acres, has other facilities all together having 476 hotel rooms that include 54 presidential suites. A few metres from Speke Resort, workers were busy planting trees and installing solar-powered lamps along the Kampala Entebbe Expressway, the main route of the delegates.
Dr Sudhir Ruparelia, the Ruparelia Group Chairman supervising the work at the venue
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