Former SC Villa President Urges Uganda to Build Local Expertise Through Hoima Stadium Lessons

Former SC Villa President Immanuel Ben Misagga has called on Uganda to prioritise building its own national capacity rather than relying on foreign expertise for major infrastructure projects.

He argues that the government must move from rhetoric about empowerment to implementing deliberate, actionable policies.

Immanuel Ben Misagga pointed out that foreign companies, such as those from China, often receive substantial backing from their home governments, including machinery, financing, and soft loans. This support, he noted, allows multiple foreign firms to competitively bid for projects within Uganda.

Citing the recently completed Hoima City Stadium, Misagga highlighted the disparity in roles between local and foreign workers.

He observed that while Turkish foremen and engineers performed the skilled technical tasks, Ugandan workers were largely assigned to manual labour.

"Look at the recently completed Hoima Stadium, a beautiful facility built by Turkey’s Summa. It is a world-class project, and Summa did a fine job," Misagga stated as quoted by Swift Sports Uganda.

"But walk onto that site during construction, and the reality was stark: Turkish engineers and foremen were doing the skilled, technical work, while Ugandans were mostly mixing cement and digging trenches."

"Now, spare a thought: what if the contract had stipulated that 20 Ugandan civil engineers had to be embedded with Summa’s team, learning to operate that specific machinery and manage that scale of project, with the goal of them being able to build a stadium on their own within the next decade? That would be real legacy," he added.

The former football administrator believes that companies like Summa, which constructed the state-of-the-art stadium, benefit significantly from their government's financial support.

"And here is the kicker: Summa, like many of these giants, is partly financed and promoted by their own government. They have the muscle of the Turkish state behind them," Misagga concluded. "So, why are we competing against state-backed behemoths with one hand tied behind our backs?"

Misagga also criticised the government's practice of hiring foreign firms to build roads, only to bring in other international companies years later to repair them.