The Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Colosseum in Rome, the Sydney Opera House and the Big Ben in London. What do all these structures have in common? You come across them in a photo and you don’t need to guess what city that is. That’s the power of landmarks.
Closer to home, the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (Nairobi) and the dome-shaped Kigali Convention Centre are some of the landmarks that come top of mind.
For someone who is passionate about travel, it never sits well with me that Kampala or even Uganda in general barely have a landmark so iconic that a distant stranger can identify with little effort. Not a building, not a structure, not a site that stands out due to its historical, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance.
For a country with so much captivating history, why is Uganda’s selling point mainly natural attractions like wild animals, rivers and mountains? Where are our museums, statues and cultural sites? Where is an Instagrammable landmark at the Source of the Nile that a visitor can carry with them? It has to be too captivating that it compels whoever looks at it to visit Jinja.
In 2023, the Statue of Liberty National Monument attracted 3.7 million visitors who spent an estimated $250 million in local gateway communities. The same year, the Eiffel Tower generated $137.2 million from 6.3 million visitors. In South Africa, the Roben Island Museum a complex that includes the prison where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, generated $14.4 million from visitors in 2024.
Earlier this year while on a road trip from Bwera near the border with DRC, we made a stopover at the Kikorongo Equator crossing along the Kasese – Mbarara Highway. The new landmark unveiled in 2024 after undergoing renovation has become more Instagrammable (or scores more aura points in 2025 speak) compared to the Equator monument in Kayabwe along Masaka Road.
There is a pull-effect that the Kikorongo equator landmark – a silver, polished metallic ring composed of several geometric elements arranged around a central globe – holds. And that’s because there is effort that went into its intricate design. Inside the ring is a three-dimensional globe made of intersecting metal arcs representing lines of latitude and longitude. All this standing upright on a broad, tiered cylindrical pedestal of stone. You simply can’t drive past it.
We need many more of such landmarks dotting cities and destinations around Uganda. And Hoima just gave us an iconic one in the newly completed Hoima City Stadium. Lately, every travel activity is sold as an experience. The idea that there is more to an activity than mere seeing or feeling. That tourism is immersive and emotive, thus making it unforgettable.
“The more I take all this in, the more it feels like I haven’t yet taken in enough,” is what I said to Christine, a work colleague as we stood on the track that circles around the green football field inside the Hoima stadium complex.
I was in sheer awe. Consumed in the multitude of the seats coloured in white, black, yellow and red. Everyone is wrestling with that rush of excitement that engulfs a 10-year-old when you place them in a vast supermarket and tell them they have only one minute to pick what they need.
In the 2 and a half or so hours we spent inside the complex, not a second passed and a photo wasn’t being taken. In the internet era, if there was ever a currency with which to measure the attractiveness of any destination, it is how many moments you have captured on camera. I often joke that if there is no photo or video of it, it never happened.
To wrap a business planning retreat, a team from Uganda Development Bank (UDB) had taken a jaunt to the new stadium to appreciate the transformative potential it holds in Bunyoro sub-region and the wider national socio-economic development. We had driven 5.6 kilometres (11 minutes) to Mparo, just outside Hoima City where the new complex sits.
The 20,000-seater stadium will host the AFCON games in 2027 as part of the joint bid by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to host the tournament. Beyond its uniqueness as; the first modern and roofed stadium built in Uganda; its visual appeal; and the variety of amenities it boasts of; there is one more element that sets this iconic facility leagues away. Hoima City Stadium is the first public infrastructure to be completed in record time in Uganda’s history.
Summa, the Turkish international contractor that constructed it had committed to hand over a finished stadium to government in 18 months. They completed it in 13 months, 5 months ahead of schedule. Nothing is more un-Ugandan!
Why am I excited about Hoima City Stadium?
Like I said earlier, this is a scenic addition to travel destinations for people like myself who find a thrill in escaping Kampala to reboot and experience life at a slow pace.
For a very long time, tourism has been pegged on site-seeing, safari drives in national parks, gorilla tracking, and other nature-oriented activities. What Hoima Stadium adds to Uganda’s experiential serving is sports tourism. And no concept has demonstrated the potential that lies in this new trend better than the Ntare League community. You can hate them for their undeniable bravado, but those folks have demonstrated that it is possible to marshal droves of people and drive miles to Jinja, Mbarara, Fort Portal and as far as Kigali purely for sporting activity.
“As of last month, we were ready. We hope to inaugurate this venue in December,” Murat Altun, the Project Manager, Summa construction company said while briefing us ahead of a guided tour of the stadium.
The State Minister for Sports, Peter Ogwang, has since disclosed that the grand opening is scheduled for December 24.
I’m convinced that if the opening match at the new stadium was to be Uganda Cranes playing a friendly game with another country – say our noisy friends to the East – the entire Kampala would descend on Hoima and fill up those seats. The implications of this descension would be bars running out of alcohol, lodges and guest houses running out of rooms, and food vendors both along Hoima Road and in Hoima City itself making ridiculous sales. All this is money injected in the local economy.
Not to mention the enormous amount of online talkability (about Hoima City Stadium) that this activity would generate.
The other reason that excites you while you walk the vast complex that sprawls across 30 acres, is the grandiose of the design along with the perfection with which Summa did the finishing. You look at the motif design they opted for on the stadium’s facade (the exterior skin) for example, and you appreciate that the intention wasn’t mere incorporating of the Uganda national colours, the pattern is a work of art. Any other Ugandan contractor would have used a stripe pattern as it apapears on the national flag.
Inside, the amenities – from the cafeteria, the speaking walls, the lounge areas and the furniture therein – are nothing short of astonishing. If you have an eye for detail, the interior wayfinding signage, designed in 3D gold letters brings a touch of luxury and sophistication. In other spaces, Summa went for minimalist but neat designs for directory signs.
If this was an audition, Summa have impressed the jury with their undisputed finesse in terms of both quality and timelines. Other projects that the company has executed across the continent include the Senegal stadium, Diori Hamani International Airport (Niger), Radisson Blu Hotel & Conference Center (Niger), Dakar Arena (Senegal), Kigali Convention Center and Hotel (Rwanda) and Blaise Diagne International Airport (Senegal) among others.
Having been introduced to Summa during their works in Rwanda – Amahoro stadium upgrade and BK Arena – I had a sense of what to expect in Hoima the moment government announced the Turkish firm was the contractor. Which is why I’m even more excited that after Hoima, Summa’s attention will turn to Lugogo in Kampala where they will deliver a much-needed multipurpose arena.
“We believe there is still a lot to do and hopefully, right after Hoima, we are now in touch to start another project in Kampala city which is called the Lugogo Sports Complex. It is an indoor stadium with a capacity of 15,000 seats. It will have an office complex, a four-star hotel, an indoor arena, a mini arena, cricket field, semi-Olympic size pool etc,” Altun revealed to us.
Set to be planted right where the Lugogo Cricket Oval is situated, this is yet another welcome cultural landmark for Kampala. Personally, I am more excited for its significance as an entertainment venue than sports. There is a tendency to chest thump about how Kampala is the region’s ‘entertainment capital’, but if we are to be honest, our deficit for concert venues is a total contradiction.
The last two years have seen a shift from mass outdoor concerts to highly billed indoor concerts. That every major concert organizer looking for an indoor venue has had to settle for the 1,500-seater Victoria Ballroom at Kampala Serena Hotel goes to show the breadth of the deficit of spacious indoor spaces that the entertainment industry suffers.
In neighbouring Rwanda which has for the last 10 years pursued a strategy to position itself as the preferred destination for events, the BK Arena has since its launch in 2019 hosted concerts from Kendrick Lamar, John Legend, Boyz II Men, Davido, Tiwa Savage, Diamond Platnumz, Sauti Sol, as well as other events such as the CHOGM Fashion Show Exhibition.
READ MORE: Is govt’s planned indoor arena what the entertainment industry has long yearned for?
The next big challenge
With the construction of Hoima City Stadium complete, government now faces two challenges; how to make this facility commercially viable and how to maintain it properly so it enjoys a longer lifespan. Both challenges have a lot to do with the fact that this is uncharted territory for government. It is fair to argue that Namboole Stadium’s record hasn’t entirely proven government to be an efficient custodian.
Sustaining mega sports facilities and managing them effectively has eluded many governments in Africa and beyond, especially those that sunk millions of dollars into constructing new stadia needed to host major tournaments. South Africa and Brazil suffered this ‘white elephant projects’ problem after they hosted the World Cup.
Andrew Feinstein, a Managing Partner of Zaria Group which manages Amahoro Stadium, Zaria Court and BK Arena in Rwanda, attributes this problem to the adamancy by governments to entrust the private sector with this responsibility.
“In most countries, those facilities are not only owned, they are also managed by government. And governments are not really in the business of making money. Booking concerts and sporting events is not exactly at the top of the list of their priorities,” says Feinstein.
“We would like to call on governments to call us in so we can manage those stadiums because we do want to make a profit. And that desire to run a profitable business will fill those buildings and ensure they are well managed,” he adds.
In Rwanda’s case, government ensured that by the time the 10,000-seater capacity BK Arena was completed in 2019 in time to host the FIBA Africa U16 Championships for Women, Zaria Group, a private firm was contracted to manage it.
“We do have relationships in the music festival management world, we have relationships in the management and sports world, and we are going to be aggressive and proactive.”
Feinstein uses the example of Denver, in Colorado, U.S. to explain how sports facilities can be enablers of economic development of communities, cities and countries. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Denver’s downtown was a ghost town with a lot of old distressed properties, rail yards and parking lots.
“People would go to office to work and by 5pm, downtown Denver was empty. The city leaders at the time had the foresight to bring a baseball team to Denver. So they built a stadium in the heart of downtown Denver. Today, that stadium has ignited development in our entire downtown for 2 miles in every direction,” Feinstein says.
In his role as CEO and Managing Partner for EXDO (“Extended Downtown”) Group, Feinstein oversees commercial property investment and joint venture vertical development for EXDO’s Denver-based property holdings.
As part of the early developments, EXDO took over a warehouse in the city and turned it into an events centre for concerts, weddings, trade shows, conferences, political rallies among other events.
“I have had a front row seat to what sports and entertainment does to reinvigorate a neighbourhood and an economy. When we bought that city block that had a warehouse, there were 4 jobs. Today, we have 250 jobs on that block. At Zaria Court in Kigali, we have created 500 new jobs. So, anyone who asks ‘Why invest in arenas and stadiums?’, I say there is an economic multiplier that is underrated,” he says.
