“I attended a technical meeting for the first time because we have some deadline to meet,” he said.
Minister Badjie made this remark yesterday after touring the stadium to assess the progress of the ongoing work.
He also said that after meeting with all the contractors and the ministries involved, they went round and identified the areas where urgent completion needs to be done.
He went on to say that from the meeting, they highlighted what is pending, and when they went round, they were able to see those areas and “kind of put a visual idea” of what was discussed at the meeting.
“So far they [the contractors] are delayed a little bit, but we are progressing and we hope that very soon the work will be completed,” the Minister said optimistically.
The work is ongoing, he added, “and the key areas have been highlighted and the contractor has committed to do those things.” The minister then revealed that a new timeline had been agreed upon.
Reacting to questions pertaining the media tribune of the stadium, minister Badjie said experts came few months ago and have taken measurement of the media tribune.
He highlighted that the media tribune is not a flat surface. “It has steps and they have taken note of that and have to manufacture the seats based on the situation,” he clarifies, saying: “This is a stadium that has been renovated and not like a newly constructed one with everything modeled to the way you want it.”
He also called on football enthusiasts to give them - sports authorities - the benefit of the doubt, noting that they are equally committed.
“We are more interested in getting the Independence Stadium to finish because we know what we are undergoing,” he expressed concern.
Badjie said the fact that the national team is playing outside and the cost associated with playing outside “when you are not gaining anything” is affecting the country more.
“When we spend on the national team and they play in the country at least we can generate some revenue,” he said, adding that they spend less in terms of hotel cost but when they play outside, as in Morocco, they spend more on hotel costs, noting that the economic returns remain in that country.
