Namboole Stadium
Parliament has given the Minister of Public Service two months to discuss with cabinet the Ad hoc Committee on Government rationalization of agencies that recommends the creation of a Sports Authority.
If adopted, this will see merging of National Council of Sports, Namboole National Stadium and Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium in order to spur growth of sports in Uganda.
It should be recalled that Cabinet had recommended to maintain National Council for Sports, Namboole National Stadium and Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium as semi-autonomous agencies.
While presenting the report to Parliament, Nathan Byanyima, Chairperson of the Ad hoc Committee recommended that in order to promote sports in Uganda in a structured and sustainable way, Government should create a Sports Authority or a Ministry of Sports to promote and nurture sports in Uganda from the grassroots.
He defended the decision remarking, “The sports sector has not been prioritized enough under the current Ministry of Education. The public stadia in the various parts of the Country are not being properly maintained, leading to their decay and encroachment. It is high time an Authority and or a Ministry of Sports was created to promote sports in a holistic manner and manage all the public sports infrastructure and talent in the country from the grassroots to the professional level.”
Ismail Dhakaba Kigongo, a sports analyst and Head of Sports at Nation Media Group welcomed the development, saying it was long overdue, adding that Uganda’s sports sector needs a dedicated body to focus strictly on sports so as not to divert focus from education sector which is already big.
“It is long overdue, sports has always needed centralization and attention. Normally what has happened is that having sports under the ministry of education has left sports on the periphery because education on its own is very big handling 15 million children who are all in school. So under the Ministry of Education, sports is handled as a by the way and it is also assumed that everybody playing sports is in school,” he said.
It should be recalled that on 22nd February 2021, Cabinet took a decision to merge, mainstream and rationalize Government agencies, Commissions, Authorities and Public Enterprises to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery.
The decision by Cabinet followed concerns raised by President who wrote to the Ministry of Public Service wondering whether it would not be fair to consolidate, downsize and rationalize and pay well non-commercial portions of state employees and demanded for practical recommendations public institutions to ensure efficiency of government in service delivery.
Following the decision by Cabinet, Parliament in September 2O21, constituted an ad hoc Committee to inquire into the rationalization and merger of Government agencies with a view of establishing whether the exercise would improve service delivery for socio-economic transformation of the country.
