The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, has said that the Federal Government needs N81 million to cut the grass that has taken over the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
He made the revelation while speaking during a seminar organised by the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria.
The minister said he had reached out to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board for an assessment of the stadium, which was built in 2003 with N53 billion on a 29 hectares (72 acres) of land.
“We approached AEPB to come to see what can be done to clear the grass and weed in the stadium and they told us it would cost us N81m.
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“If we tell Nigerians we used N81m which is not even available; there will be an outcry. The funds are not there for us, and that is why we are partnering with private investors to bring back the key components of our infrastructures,” he said.
Recall that the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development proposed to spend a total of N798.75m on various projects at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja in 2021.
This contains part of the 2021 budget which was presented by the President Muhammadu Buhari, to a joint section of the National Assembly in October.
It was reported in June that the Abuja stadium was in a bad state one year after it was named after the presumed winner of the 1993 presidential election, Moshood Abiola.
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The breakdown of the sports ministry budget for the 2021 fiscal year which was gathered by our correspondent showed that there are seven different projects to be carried out at the Abuja stadium.
While four of the projects were listed as ongoing projects, three others were listed in the 2021 budget as new projects.
The ongoing projects are rehabilitation of street lights, panels and electrical works at package A and B of the stadium which would cost N60m, construction of National Stadium Medicine and High Performance Centre with N300.75m budgeted and reconstruction of second training pitch which is expected to gulp N90m.
The last of the projects listed as ongoing is the general maintenance of the package A and B of the stadium which would cost N250m.
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Listed as new projects for the 2021 fiscal year in the budget are the renovation of the indoor sports hall and gymnasium for N60m, payment of water bill for N15m and wireless access network for the stadium at N23m.
The stadium, which was built in 2003 with N53 billion on 29 hectares (72 acres) of land, is divided into Package A and B.
Package A houses the Main Bowl, while Package B houses other facilities like basketball courts, NFF office, volleyball courts, tennis courts, squash courts.
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