The national football governing body, Ferwafa has yet again got a Fifa grant under the Goal project worth $ 400,000 (Frw 217,970,000) for another installation of an artificial turf at the yet to open football academy in Remera. Work on the academy pitch has already started.

The development is the second in the country after Stade Regional de Kigali, Nyamirambo was completed and already in use.

According to Ferwafa’s president, Brigadier General Jean Bosco Kazura, the work on the academy that had stalled for sometime is near completion.

Work on the installation of an artificial turf at the Stade Regional de Kigali, Nyamirambo under Fifa’s "Win in Africa with Africa" initiative was estimated to have cost a whopping $ 0.7m.

The idea for the ‘Win in Africa with Africa’ project first emerged on 15 May 2004, when members of Fifa’s executive committee chose South Africa as hosts of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Sensing a duty to assist the African continent above and beyond the realm of sport, world football’s governing body resolved to go further. Thus ‘Win in Africa with Africa’ was officially unveiled on 7 July 2006, boasting a budget of 70 million dollars.

In essence, ‘Win in Africa with Africa’ is not about sending aid to Africa so much as providing the continent with the tools to progress and the skills with which it can continue its own development.

The initiative has the backing of the United Nations, for whom former Secretary General Kofi Annan signed the original document on 7 July 2006, and the European Union, which came on board on 9 July 2006.

Similar wide-ranging initiatives based on the same model have been planned for other regions of the world, with ‘Win in Oceania with Oceania’ and ‘Win in India with India’ soon to go ahead.

Similar projects have been extended to regional countries like Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania.

The Goal Programme inspired by Fifa President Joseph Sepp Blatter was launched for the 1999-2002 period with funds amounting to Swiss Francs 100 million. The programme then graduated to the Goal II stage, again with a similar amount available for the 2003-2006 period.

The programme targets to financially benefit underprivileged associations, by providing headquarters, natural and artificial turf pitches, training and education centres and other facilities essential to a basic infrastructure.

Fifa had targeted its member associations to have their own Houses of Football by the year 2006.

So far, 109 of the 248 projects in the pipeline have officially been launched, with a further 24 already completed. Such is the success of the programme that 66 member associations are already working on a second project. Under the Fifa initiative of the Goal Project, Ferwafa headquarters and Technical Centre, a facility whose construction ended about three years ago, was built.

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