Bingu Stadium opening to delay further—Manager
Newly-constructed Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe will not open this month as previously announced, the stadium’s operations manager Eric Ning’ang’a has said.
Minister of Labour, Sports, Youth and Manpower Development Henry Mussa recently said the stadium will open “not later than October.”
But Ning’ang’a said yesterday that the October time-frame might not be realistic.
He said: “So far we have waited for almost three years for the stadium to be constructed and I hope it would not hurt so much to wait for at least two months more. The public has to be patient.”
The state-of-the-art stadium was constructed by a Chinese contractor to the tune of $70 million concessional loan Malawi government will pay back in 20 years.
The stadium received K841 million from the 2016/17 National Budget for its completion.
According to Ning’ang’a, the final touches are in progress as the Lilongwe City Assembly is putting up the main sewer line for the 800-toilet facility while Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi (Escom) and Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) are working on electric power and network cables.
An international friendly match between the Flames and China select will mark the official opening of the stadium. n
