As Uganda prepares to host one of the continent’s biggest sporting events in AFCON 2027, how are you shaping a long-term vision for the country’s sports sector that goes beyond individual competitions and establishes sport as a sustainable national industry?

One of the programs implemented by the government is related to human capital development, which focuses on sports, education, health, and specifically water and sanitation.

In terms of sports, we have the National Sports Act, which indicates how we must govern sports in the country and guides the entire operation on what sports development must be.

Sports in Uganda are clustered based on primary, secondary and tertiary levels. When we go to clubs and associations, there are different roles for different stakeholders. For instance, if we talk about the primary level, that’s talent identification and development. The focus here is on us as the Ministry of Education and 

Sports, because all learning institutions are under us, right from primary school up to university. That’s what gives us a big advantage as a ministry to coordinate it.

Within the Ministry of Education, we particularly deal with the Department of Physical Education and Sports. This focuses on a number of disciplines, but we are not dealing with specialization at that stage. We’re focused on giving children the opportunity to play sport for purposes of personal health and learning, and making sure that they learn to be united as a team, because sports really encourage unity and also build resilience.

Now, when we get to the level of competitions, we have quite a strong competition calendar, which we normally operate as the Ministry of Education and Sports. We normally have sports competitions in the 146 districts across the country. To pick the best team, you have to zone them, and the country has been divided into 19 zones. Once we get the 19 zones, they compete to select a national team. It’s a big job, in which we try to identify the best talent.

As we do that, we get in touch with the National Council of Sports, which is the board regulator for all sports associations and federations in line with the Sports Act. We ask them to invite sports associations and federations to look at amateur and professional athletes.

Why do we avoid them going directly to schools? Because we must continue allowing our children to balance sports with their studies. We don’t want to lose out on the passion of a child continuing with their studies. But also, when we go into that federation or association, we start a conversation about sports academies. For those families who feel their children can make it professionally, that’s the level where they begin specializing. Then, at the university level, you can continue with your studies and, at the same time, participate in sports competitions.

As a country, we had a vision that is now what we call SET. SET is Sports, Entertainment and Tourism. Our vision is to mix sports with entertainment and tourism because we must look at building our economy. Our economy is going to be among the fastest-growing in the next year on the continent. If we are to comply with the plan we have in sports, I can guarantee you it might go to double digits. Because I don’t think other economies were able to factor in the investment that we are putting into sports development and the plan we have as a ministry to drive SET.

Now, AFCON 2027 was a plan that my senior minister and I agreed on to support the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA). For a long time, we’ve been participating, but East Africa had never hosted such a prestigious football tournament on the African continent. So, when we came up with the plan, we also had to agree that the investment required was going to be massive.

As a country, Uganda is going to spend almost a billion dollars for the purpose of developing infrastructure and preparing for the competition. If Uganda alone were hosting the tournament, we would have been meant to spend almost three billion dollars. That was quite a lot of money. But the President is fast-thinking, and he considered this an issue in which his colleagues in the region should get involved. So, he was able to talk to the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and he also talked to the President of Kenya, and they agreed that the three countries could host. So, we put up a joint bid as Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

And I want to thank the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for giving us that opportunity. They gave us the hosting rights without infrastructure. It was then incumbent upon the guarantees which the government supported. Our government was going to invest in infrastructure. And I want to confirm that we are good to go. I can confirm there’s a lot of work going on at the national stadium, and even in Hoima, where the stadium is already complete. There’s a lot of work going on in all sporting infrastructure, including the training pitches.

The government has come in to support the hoteliers because standards are now set by CAF. We’re putting an investment of about $30 million to support the private sector. By 31 December 2026, all those infrastructures must be ready.

We now have three stadiums, all in motion and being constructed. We are going to construct an indoor arena here in Ngobo after AFCON, which is going to be the biggest in East Africa. It’s a one-stop campus for the purpose of SET.

In terms of what we expect out of AFCON 2027, I’m sure we will be able to recover about $1 billion because of SET. To be honest, I don’t think there’s any part of this African region which has greater tourism potential than the three countries hosting AFCON 2027. And we plan to maximize advertising our country and destination, Uganda.

AFCON 2027 is accelerating investment in Uganda’s sporting infrastructure, including stadiums and related facilities. How is the Ministry ensuring that these investments create a lasting legacy for Ugandan sport, while also expanding access to quality facilities and talent-development programs across the country?

In all these plans for this infrastructure, we have a long-term plan. I can already give you case studies of the benefits which are beginning to be reaped. I mentioned the Hoima Arena. One fact in terms of our planning of this infrastructure is that we are building it as a multi-sport facility. We are not only constructing a football stadium, but a football stadium which has a running track and the measurements of a rugby pitch.

World Rugby invited me to London for the Women’s World Cup final. I requested to host the World Challenger Series, and I can now confirm that in January 2027, we are going to host about 24 nations from across the globe for the World Challenge Series. So, as you see, we are beginning to reap the benefits. But all this is because of the investment for AFCON, because we decided to be strategic with our planning.

We are constructing another football stadium and another arena, a semi-Olympic swimming pool in the northern part of the country, and a professional tennis court. We are doing all this because we are thinking long-term. The day there is no football, it shouldn’t be a white elephant.

That is our planning, and it’s how we make sure that these facilities remain extremely active and benefit the country. As government, we must always plan our budgets for the purpose of hosting additional international competitions. If there is a bid, there is this opportunity. As a consequence of this mindset, Uganda has already won the hosting rights for the African Games in 2031. They came here, they visited our infrastructure, and we defeated Nigeria.

Now, our main plan going forward is to see how we get our talent to the best parts of the world, where they can be able to make it to professional levels. That’s why we have come up with the National Sports Academies. One is going to be in Wayma, another one is going to be in Kaliro in eastern Uganda, another is going to be in Mbale, and we are working within the ministry to identify additional land in western Uganda. The purpose of these academies is to develop our talent and improve because, truth to be told, the return on investment is quite high.

Where did all this investment for AFCON 2027 come from?

That was 100% government of Uganda funding. We made the decision to consider AFCON a priority project, and it’s 100% government money. Because no donor can give you money just to put into this. And no country is ready to lend you money for long-term investment, specifically for sports and health. But I can guarantee that this sports infrastructure investment is worth it. With our plan, in the next three or four years, we’ll have got our money back.

Delivering a successful AFCON 2027 and building a sustainable sports industry will require significant collaboration beyond government. What opportunities do you see for private investors, sponsors, international sporting organizations and other partners to participate in Uganda’s sports development?

First of all, I really want to call upon them. The time is now for them to come in. We had no infrastructure before, but today, the first partners we’ve had are the ones doing business. We are directly buying goods and services from the private sector. So, the opportunities they have are that they are going to market their own companies using sports, and I encourage them to join now.

The other opportunity which is going to help them is this nation, Uganda, which can still bring in more people for them to market this country and market their companies. The other opportunity I want to confirm is that they will be able to directly contribute to the development of our country by paying taxes. The opportunities for the private sector are quite enormous.

This part of the world has not been exploited by quite many, but we are on the right path. I can promise you, in the next 15 years, no country in Africa will be able to compete with Uganda.