By Our Correspondent

The minister of youth and sports development, Sunday Dare has assured that renovation work will soon commence at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja, Bestchoicesports.com.ng reports

In a release Thursday, the minister said that the stadium will soon get a facelift as the final stage of the agreement with Dangote Group is almost concluded leading to contractors moving to site.

Mr. Dare who on Monday inspected the installation of Moshood Abiola plague at the Stadium in readiness for Friday’s 21 Democracy Day in Nigeria said, “Work will soon commence at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja. We were on the verge of completing the documentation process, review contracting process for the rehabilitation of the Moshood Abiola Stadium before Covid-19 struck. We had to shut down the whole country, a global shut down as the case maybe”.

Dare further said, “Remember, it is a private company and they had to go through a lot of processes, they had to invite more than 8 different contractors. They have to visit the stadium, they have to turn in their bill of quantity and also sit on a review board.They also had to decide which contractor was the most suitable to give us the best job. Being the National stadium, all of these take time, they are normal standard operating procedure. I am glad to say that very soon, we are now at the stage of purchasing order and we must remember that we cannot force or accelerate the process because we are dealing with a well respected Nigerian who is bringing in his money without any plans to recoup anything to maintain the National Stadium”.

On plans for other National stadiums, the Minister stated his Ministry has concessions approval to concession the national stadium, Surulere and that the process has been on going but was delayed due to lack of concession advisers.

“We have been able to overcome that. In the next couple of weeks, we will have those who are interested in taking over the national stadium Surulere concession and hostel come forth and the normal process of concession will take place. We are also looking for special intervention funds of about 5- 10 billion Naira from the government that would enable us renovate and upgrade other sporting assets across the country,” Dare assured.