NCS Hands Over Sir Tito Winyi Site To UPDF For Uganda’s First National Sports Academy
A major milestone in Ugandan sports was recorded today as the National Council of Sports (NCS) received the Sir Tito Winyi site from the Church of Uganda and handed it over to the UPDF Engineering Brigade for immediate development into the country’s first-ever National Sports Academy.
The handover ceremony was held at the school premises in Hoima and was presided over by NCS Board Chairman Ambrose Tashobya, who represented the Honourable Minister of State for Sports.
A Legacy Facility Beyond AFCON 2027
The Sir Tito Winyi site is part of the cluster of facilities earmarked to serve Hoima City Stadium during AFCON 2027.
But according to NCS, it will be far more than just a tournament training ground. The first phase alone is budgeted at Shs 17.081 billion.
NCS has acquired 100 acres from the vast Sir Tito Winyi expanse. Both Chairman Tashobya and NCS General Secretary Dr. Bernard Patrick Ogwel confirmed that government is open to acquiring more land from the church if available.
What Will Be Built
The academy will feature:
- Three floodlit grass pitches
- One artificial turf
- A running track
- A multi-purpose hall with changing rooms
- Power house, ICT installations, parking, and access roads
After AFCON 2027, the facility will transition into a long-term high-performance center — a “conveyor belt” for producing world-class athletes in football, rugby, athletics, and indoor/outdoor sports. It will also train coaches and other technical personnel.
Chairman Tashobya, a former national basketball player, said he will take a hands-on role in the project. He also proposed establishing an education center within the academy and challenged Sir Tito Winyi Secondary School to position itself as a “school of sports excellence” to feed talent from Hoima, Bunyoro and across Uganda into the academy.
“This will be the most important of all the facilities currently being developed across the country,” Tashobya said.
Six-Month Deadline for AFCON Training Ground
Immediate priority is to complete the training ground for AFCON 2027.
Lt. Col. Eng. Seku Kidemuka of the UPDF Engineering Brigade committed to delivering it in six months, under supervision from the Ministry of Works and Transport. The Works team was led by Eng. Henry Lubega.
The AFCON Secretariat was represented by Dennis Kiberu (Infrastructure) and Hamzah Nsereko (Media and Operations).
Credit-NCS
The UPDF Engineering Brigade had on Monday also received Kadiba Stadium in Kampala. They are already working on facilities in the Namboole cluster at Kyambogo and Makerere Universities, Boma Grounds and Masindi for Hoima City Stadium, and Lira University, Gulu University and Pece Stadium for Akii-Bua Olympic Stadium.
With ground now broken at Sir Tito Winyi, Uganda’s dream of a centralized national academy is finally taking shape.