Bingu Stadium ready by Sept 2016, gets K841mil boost in Malawi budget

The state-of-the-art Bingu National stadium  in the capital Lilongwe will be completed by September this year and ready for opening as government has allocated K841 million ($1213 564)  in the K1 trillion 2016/17 national budget presented on Friday in Parliament.

Bingu National Stadium
Bingu National Stadium
Inside Bingu Stadium
Inside Bingu Stadium

The Chinese-funded project was completed late last year but the stadium has been idle because government could not pump in funds to enhance electricity supply and have the sewer system operational.

To finalise work on the stadium, the ministry early this year sought K500 million ($721 501) extra funding which was not given.

But after Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Goodall Gondwe,  presented his budget statement in parliament on Friday, Ministry of Sports and Culture’s spokesperson Christopher Mbukwa said the modern facility will be completed in September because of the Treasury allocation.

“K841 million is enough to operationalise the stadium. The project will be completed and opened this year,” Mbukwa said.

He said the funds will be enough to upgrade the stadium to the expected standards.

Mbukwa said the completion works of the stadium will  start at soon as Parliament approves the national budget.

The 2016/17 financial year will start on July 1 this year while Parliament is expected to start deliberations on the budget on Monday.

Construction of the stadium by  by a Chinese contractor to the tune of 70 million U.S. dollars, a concessional loan to be paid back by Malawi government in 20 years,  commenced on July 1, 2013 .

Among other facilities are 56 lounges where families and sponsor groups will have the luxury of watching live events in private.

It also has a press gallery, a gym and Olympic standard synthetic running track around the pitch, and the playing field is covered with special drought-resistant grass imported from South Africa.

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Kalata ya Muwerengi
Kalata ya Muwerengi
7 years ago

The Stadium had better be ready this time otherwise it will be a shame to Malawi if we cannot do the little to get the stadium running after our Chinese friends put in a lot of resources to put up the structure. Next let us get the solar plant to provide backup power at KIA running too after our Japanese friends donated the structure to us some time back.

Alidere nkulinga utayenda naye
Alidere nkulinga utayenda naye
7 years ago

Hon Grace Obama, today you want 500mil tomorrow you want 841mil, 341mil of what. This Government wants to cashgate tax payers money through Minstry of sports. God is watching and you will be answerable.

Mathanyula
Mathanyula
7 years ago

Mk841million would feed a whole lot of starving Malawians, buy a whole lot of drugs, buy a lot of irrigation systems…….but because this administration is soooooo retarded they would rather waste money on yet another white elephant

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