The Honorable Minister of Youth and Sports, Bakary Y. yesterday 6th May 2024 toured the Independence Stadium to get informed about the ongoing renovations and remodeling of the Independence Stadium.
Minister Badjie disclosed that this project is fully funded by the government. Phase one costed D130 million, and the second phase budgeted was D153 million. According to him, a total of D283,000,000.00 is required for the two phases.
He further informed the media that he is aware of concerns of the Gambians about the state of the stadium. He expressed hope that the renovation work would be completed in the next few months and approved by CAF for the country’s next official match.
“I know the independence stadium is one place that every Gambian is interested in and even those who are never interested in sports are now taking up discussion of the stadium as a major issue and I have talked about it multiple times for the right reasons,” the minister said.
“We all know it is the only stadium in the Gambia. Playing outside the country wasn’t the desirable conditions but that is what we find ourselves. As we can see the work is progressing and just started two weeks ago as Mr Faye said our anticipation is that in four months’ time from the period of starting the work will be completed an we will be able to bring back our matches to play home,” he added.
Speaking earlier, the acting Executive Director of the National Sports Council, Mr. Mahmoud Lamin Jawla, told the press that the purpose of the tour is to see how far the remodeling and renovation of the Stadium is going especially phase two which started few weeks ago.
General Manager of the Independence stadium, Ebou Faye also informed the press that as required by CAF, a media center will be built for journalists with all requirements, including a press conference hall, staircase leading to the stance where journalists are seated, separated seating area for journalists with access to internet, a new and standardized scoreboard are required by CAF as well.
He says they are always in touch with the CAF technical team, who are advising them as they proceed with renovations.
He disclosed that they were also advised by the Confederation of African Football to increase the height of the perimeter fence around the stadium to avoid people scaling over during matches for security reasons.