MoYS: D283 Million Independence Stadium Renovation to Conclude in July 2024
Stadium Renovation in Progress (c) Ministry of Youths and Sports
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
Sports Minister Hon Bakary Badjie revealed that The Gambia Government will spend some D283 million to complete two renovation phases of the country’s only National Independence Stadium which is expected to be completed by the end of July 2024.
Minister Badjie made this revelation today 5th June 2024 at the press conference held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center chaired by Government Spokesperson Ebrima Sankareh and attended by Information Minister Hon Ismaila Ceesay and Lands Minister Hon Hamat N K Bah.
According to BBC Sport, the Gambia’s Football Team, the Scorpions last played in the Independence Stadium in March 2021 beating Angola 1-0 to qualify for its first-ever Nations Cup finals. Since then, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) subsequently banned the country’s only FIFA-approved stadium via a letter dated 16th February 2022 forcing the Scorpions to play all FIFA matches away from home.
Initially, the Stadium’s renovation was set to cost D100 million with renovation works to be completed in six months but this did not happen as planned. After spending the D100 million CAF did not approve the Stadium to host FIFA matches.
Speaking at the press conference, Minister Badjie was asked to provide assurances that there will be no further delays and to disclose how much money has been spent on the stadium’s renovation so far.
Minister Badjie explained that the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure is responsible for the supervision of the works. Hon Badjie noted that his “Ministry is more of a beneficiary because we are not doing the estimates, supervising the works, we're not providing the money so we’re right there in the middle”.
According to Hon Badjie his Ministry goes through a lengthy process to gain approval for the renovation of the stadium which includes the MoTWI assessing the funds required for the works, “this goes to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Youth and Sports, Cabinet approves then Ministry of Finance then looks for the money and gives us”.
Speaking on the delayed timelines Hon Badjie explained that “this is what the Ministry of Works said you need six months to do the job”. A bidding process was initiated however, delays in payments also delayed the work being done. In addition to this ordering the materials required also includes delays in shipping from China and Turkey.
In summary, Minister Badjie noted that “the delays were due to not accessing the funds on time, delays in the shipment by the contractors”.
Highlighting President Adama Barrow’s interest in the Stadium’s renovation Minister Badjie revealed that the head of state noted during his visit of the stadium that “these are things that we never budgeted for. So, if you tell the government that you need to give D100 million when there was no D100 million in the budget and you already passed your budget you have to go around and look for the funds”.
Reassuring Gambians that there will be no further delays Minister Badjie stated: “Now we’re assured that all the funds are in at least for the second phase. The contractors, that’s why I said on paper we expect that the work will finish by the end of July and we don’t anticipate any delay because as of yesterday they were within schedule”.
Revealing how much money will be spent on the two phases Minister Badjie revealed: “The first phase was about D153 million Dalasis. For the total we will be spending D283 million dalasis for the renovation of both the first phase and the second phase”.
After July 2024 more works are scheduled for the Stadium. Minister Badjie revealed that: “There is supposed to be a third phase which is supposed to be the tracks and floodlights. Those are taken out from the job because the cost estimate we received is too huge and we cannot carry all of these at the same time”.
