Ground-breaking work for the construction of the proposed four-star FERWAFA hotel started on Monday at the premises formerly occupied by Rwanda Police adjacent to the Rwanda Football Association (FERWAFA) headquarters in Remera.

The 120-room hotel is part of the FIFA Goal project development programme aimed at helping developing countries to establish infrastructure and facilities to boost the growth of the game.

The world football governing body has provided a grant of US$2,896,640 (approximately Rwf2bn) towards this 4bn project while the other half will be a loan from Rwanda Development Bank (BRD).

In an exclusive interview with Times Sport, the Managing Director of Expert Company Limited, Protais Segatabazi, who have been contracted to construct the hotel, revealed that the four-star Hotel will be built in three structures, each having a four-storey building.

"We have now started the first phase and we hope to complete it within a period of eighteen months then we will proceed to phase two,” said Segatabazi, adding that each of the three four-storey structures will comprise 40 rooms.

Segatabazi further explained that, "The hotel will contain a modern mini-foot playground, a swimming pool, tennis, basketball and volleyball courts and a 600-room conference hall, making it eligible to host different games at a go.”

In a separate interview, the FERWAFA secretary general, Olivier Mulindahabi, disclosed that the hotel will not be complete in time for the 2016 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) due to delay to start the construction works. CHAN 2016 will be held in Rwanda from January 16 to February 7.

"We are just four months before the start of CHAN, which means this project cannot be part of the competition, even the first phase won’t be ready. The whole project will take at least four years,” said Mulindahabi.

According to Mulindahabi, the hotel is expected to reduce on the expenses that the Ministry of Sports and Culture (MINISPOC) incurs on national teams during residential training or accommodation for visiting national teams and also use it for commercial purposes to generate income for different activities.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw