Ferwafa keen to have new hotel ready for Chan 2016

Rwanda Football Federation (Ferwafa) has announced that the 4 star hotel it is set to start constructing will host some teams during the African Nations Championship (Chan) next year. Fifa will provide Rwf2bn ($2,896,640) grant which is half the budget as part of the Fifa Goal project development programme aimed at helping developing countries establish infrastructure and facilities towards the growth of the game. Ferwafa President Vincent Nzamwita wants the Hotel to be ready for the 2016 Chan championship. (File) According to the Ferwafa president Vincent Degaule Nzamwita, the hotel will be four-storeyed with 88 rooms and will be built on the piece of land next to the Ferwafa headquarters in Remera, currently occupied by Rwanda Police. “We shall approach banks and different stakeholders like the Ministry of Sports and Culture to help us fund the other half which is Rwf2bn,” Ferwafa spokesman Moussa Hakizimana revealed. Construction is set to start next month as the football governing body awaits Rwanda Police to shift so that work can commence in order to beat the December deadline. Hakizimana is quite skeptical about the timeline, “Sometimes projects like this one can take a while longer and may not be ready by January but we shall try and keep on track.” The hotel is expected to reduce on the expenses that the Ministry of Sports spends on national teams during residential training or visiting national teams. Ferwafa is also expected to use the hotel for commercial purposes to generate income for different football activities. Fifa has sponsored several projects in Rwanda including the construction of the Ferwafa Headquaters in Remera, which was the first project in 2001. Six years later, the Fifa Goal Bureau supported the installation of an artificial turf at the technical centre to help improve the facility used by several teams for training. Fifa then spearheaded the establishment of a football academy in 2008 which later played a crucial role in Rwanda’s qualification for the 2011 Fifa U-17 World Cup in Mexico. The Goal Project also saw the installation of an artificial turf at the Muhanga stadium in 2011, an initiative that has enabled the facility to host domestic league and cup games. The Fifa Goal Project is an initiative started by Fifa president Sepp Blatter in 1999 to help improve infrastructure in developing countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. editorial@newtimes.co.rw