Kigali Arena


The Kigali Arena is an indoor arena in Kigali, Rwanda, used mostly for basketball matches. Built and finished in 2019, it hosts sporting events and concerts. It is the biggest indoor arena in East Africa and is located next to the Amahoro Stadium.

Construction

Construction of the Kigali Arena a joint project of the Rwandan Government through the Rwanda Housing Authority and Turkish firm Summa started in January 2019. The construction of the indoor arena was supervised by the RHA. The Kigali Arena's construction progressed at a fast rate, with around 1,000 to 2,000 people employed to work on the project both in day and night shifts. By mid-June 2019, the indoor arena was at least 70 percent complete and was set to be completed in July 2019.
On 9 August 2019, the arena was inaugurated with a basketball game between Patriots BBC and REG BBC, with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in attendance.

Features

Kigali Arena is a 10,000 capacity indoor arena which is meant for indoor sports such as basketball, handball, volleyball, and tennis, as well as concerts and conferences. The sports venue is situated nearby the 30,000 capacity Amahoro Stadium and the 2,500 capacity Amahoro Indoor Stadium.

Events

The first sporting event to be hosted at the Kigali Arena is expected to be the 2019 FIBA Under-16 Women's African Championship. It will also host AfroBasket 2021.
It has hosted the finals of the 2019 Rwandan National Basketball League, selling out multiple games. The arena will also host the Final Four of the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League.