Tayari || 11th Nov. 2025
As Uganda prepares to co-host the 36th edition of the biennial African football tournament organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which will be hosted by Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania in June and July 2027, the Bunyoro sub-region is excited, with many preparatory activities underway.
Because the tournament brings about benefits including tourism and technological growth, which require infrastructural upgrade, investors in Bunyoro are not seated.
Under their grouping, the Bunyoro hotel owners’ association, local investors think AFCON is an opportunity they should exploit. But the investors say their capacity to invest in the infrastructural development is limited, and they need loans from the government.
Dr Fred Kabagambe Kalisa, the chairperson of the Bunyoro hotel owners association, told Tayari Media that they need to improve the standards of hotel facilities in the area to be able to put up a conducive atmosphere for the guests, but they ‘do not have enough money,’ and they want the government of Uganda to give them loans.
According to Dr Kabagambe, the hotel association seeks a 130 billion Uganda shillings loan, which ‘will be paid’ after the AFCON tournament.
“We need to have four and five-star buildings to accommodate both the football players and fans during AFCON. The president has already tasked the prime minister to get enough information about our request. We have done what is necessary on our side,” noted Dr Kabagambe
“Apart from AFCON, we are looking at improving tourism activities in the region. We have endowments like Murchison Falls National Park, Kaiso Tonya Game Reserve, Bugoma Central Forest Reserve, and others,” he added.
Previously, the Minister of State for Sports, Mr Peter Ogwang, while inspecting the construction of Hoima stadium, advised hotel owners in the Bunyoro region to improve the standards of the hotel facilities to be able to tap opportunities from AFCON guests.
“We are going to have a group of teams here in Hoima, and this means our standards must improve. You can’t have a player like Mo Salah sleeping in a funny hotel. It would be funny to have teams flying from Kampala and going back just because there are no facilities here,” Mr Ogwang remarked.
AFCON offers epochal revenue from media rights, ticket sales, tourism, job opportunities and infrastructural development on top of boosting the country’s profile as well as strengthening diplomatic ties.