The Government of Tanzania has said it is committed to developing a state-of-the-art 15,000-capacity arena, filling a void for the staging of major entertainment and sports events.
The East African nation is currently without such a facility and there have been growing calls to address this. An arena has been in the works for several years, with delays in it getting off the ground chiefly attributed to challenges in securing funding.
It is due to be located in Kawe, an administrative ward of the Dar es Salaam Region, with the Government now stating the project can progress after President Samia Suluhu Hassan secured a loan agreement during a recent visit to South Korea.
Government spokesman Gerson Msigwa, who is also the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Arts and Culture, said, according to The East African: “This matter has been giving the President a lot of sleepless nights because for a very long time we didn’t have the funds and every time we tried to access funds to build an arena, our plans would hit a dead end.
“Finally, we got the funds. The President went to South Korea and secured a soft loan of $2.5bn (£1.94bn/€2.3bn). Out of this, the President has decided that Tsh450bn (£132.5m/€157.5m/$170.9m) will be used first to build the arena and secondly, once the arena is built, we will build a film village.
“We now have the funds and once the paperwork is done in time, the construction of the arena will start in Kawe, Dar es Salaam.”
Along with Tanzania, there have also been growing calls for a modern arena development in Kenya as East African nations look on enviously at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. BK Arena opened in the summer of 2019 as the largest indoor arena in East Africa, with work on the project taking just six months to complete.
News of a potential new arena in Tanzania comes after AFL Architects yesterday (Thursday) announced it had been awarded a contract to design a wide-ranging sports city project in Fumba, Zanzibar.
The complex will feature three stadiums. The two larger stadiums will have capacity for 25,000 and 10,000 people, while a smaller 2,500-seat stadium will be used for athletics and football. The project has been commissioned by Tanzania’s Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture and Sport, and is designed to establish Zanzibar as a leading destination for sport, tourism and major events.
