The stadium that will help East Africa host its first Africa Cup of Nations in half a century is entering its final stretch, and Tanzania’s vice president wanted to see it for himself.
Vice President Emmanuel Nchimbi toured the Arusha Stadium site on Sunday and came away impressed, praising China Railway Construction Engineering Group (CRCEG). For both the quality of the build and the speed of the work, according to a statement from his communications office. The project has reached 88 percent completion and remains on track for delivery by the end of August 2026. The statement said, a timeline that would leave roughly a year of buffer before the tournament kicks off in 2027.
Nchimbi framed the milestone as a direct reflection of the government’s determination to successfully host the continental tournament. Calling the timely completion of the venue essential to Tanzania’s broader hosting preparations. He also pressed authorities to keep pace on the surrounding infrastructure, directing that access roads to the stadium be finished on schedule in line with President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s own directive on the matter. A reminder that a finished stadium bowl alone won’t guarantee a smooth tournament without the roads, transport links and services around it keeping up.
The stadium, officially named the Samia Suluhu Hassan Stadium after Tanzania’s sitting president, broke ground in Arusha’s Olomoti area in April 2024. Culture, Arts and Sports Minister Damas Ndumbaro signed the construction agreement with CRCEG. Built on a 14.57-hectare site at an estimated cost of roughly 286 to 338 billion Tanzanian shillings (approximately $111-112 million). The venue is designed to CAF and FIFA standards with a 30,000-seat capacity, a circular roof and steel-framed superstructure, making it the most modern stadium in East Africa once complete. Beyond match days, the complex is planned to include event spaces, a museum and offices intended to keep it in community use well after the tournament ends.
Progress has moved steadily if not always in a straight line: the project stood at just 5 percent completion in mid-2024 during early site preparation, reached 74 percent by February 2026. And has now climbed to 88 percent as of Sunday’s inspection. Tanzanian officials have repeatedly credited CRCEG for beating internal deadlines along the way. Deputy Minister for Information, Culture and Sports Hamis Mwinjuma noted last year that the contractor completed the project’s first construction phase 20 days ahead of schedule. An unusual feat he said had not previously been managed on a project of this scale in the country.
CRCEG’s chairman, Wang Yusheng, has described the stadium as another landmark in more than 20 years of the company’s presence in the Arusha market. Following more than ten prior projects including the Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission headquarters, a National Social Security Fund commercial building and the Arusha Melia Hotel. He has framed the project specifically as cementing cooperation between China and Tanzania. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, arguing the finished venue would help Tanzania grow its sports sector, raise Arusha’s profile, and draw new development opportunities to the city and the country as a whole.
The Arusha venue is one piece of a much larger joint hosting effort. Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are co-hosting AFCON 2027 under their joint “Pamoja” bid. This marks the first time East African nations have hosted the tournament together, and the first time it has returned to East Africa since Ethiopia’s 1976 finals. The three countries are together spending more than $2.27 billion preparing venues and supporting infrastructure for the tournament. Tanzania’s own contribution spans the Arusha Stadium alongside the existing Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam and the Amaan Stadium Complex in Zanzibar.
Arusha Regional Commissioner Kenani Kihongosi has argued the project’s significance extends well beyond football itself. Describing the investment as a pillar of sports, culture and civic wellbeing for the region. This is not simply a stadium built for one tournament.
The stadium project adds a high-profile sporting dimension to a China-Tanzania relationship that has been expanding on nearly every front this year. Ties were elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership following talks between President Xi Jinping and President Samia Suluhu Hassan in 2024. Bilateral trade surpassed $10 billion for the first time in 2025, with a zero-tariff policy for Tanzanian exports to China. This policy took effect on May 1, 2026. The two countries also marked the 50th anniversary of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway’s operation earlier this month. Alongside a newly launched $1.4 billion project to revitalize the line, Chinese medical teams have continued a decades-long health partnership. Recently delivered a landmark spine surgery in Mbeya and the country’s first laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair in Zanzibar.
For Tanzanian officials, the stadium adds a visible, high-stakes marker to that broader partnership. Where the finished product will be judged not in trade figures or diplomatic communiques, but in whether 30,000 seats in Arusha are ready to fill when the tournament’s opening whistle blows.
