By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
The Government of the Gambia, through the Ministry of Youth & Sports, is planning on constructing a new stadium in Lamin, West Coast Region, that will go side by side with the Independence Stadium in Bakau, Youth and Sports Minister, Bakary Y. Badjie, confirmed to The Fatu Network in an exclusive interview.
He said the government has already acquired land in Lamin, in the West Coast Region, as well as got a 30-thousand-capacity stadium design.
“As a government, we have been looking at the option of the possibility of having a second stadium because we have the land, and we have the design. What is left now is the financial aspect of it,” he told TFN.
What is pending now, according to him, is funding to build the stadium. He explained the government is seeking funding to build a new stadium that will complement the Independence Stadium, which is currently under renovation and remodelling.
Badjie, however, said that the government does not currently have the fund to build the stadium but are looking at means to get funds.
“Like I said, 100 million dollars is about 6 billion Gambian dalasis. That is how expensive a stadium is, but we are looking into that; it is just a matter of time, and we are hoping to do it.
“But we don’t expect the government to fund it because the government does not have those kinds of funds. But we are looking at possible ways either through bilateral arrangements or some kinds of arrangements that can make us have a stadium. As a minister of youth and sports, I will want us to have multiple stadiums,” he told TFN.
The Gambia’s only stadium is currently under renovation after it has been deemed unfit to host international games. The 35-thousand-capacity stadium was built in the early 1980s. Since then, the Gambia has not built another stadium.
