The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has asked Rwanda to ensure that facilities for next year’s continental football tournament that it will be hosting are available by mid-September.

Sixteen nations will compete in the fourth edition of the African Nations Championships, also known as Chan, the French abbreviation for its original name Championnat Afrique de Nations. The tournament is reserved for home-based players, who play in their respective domestic leagues.

The 2016 Chan will be held in Kigali, Huye and Rubavu from January 16 to February 7.

When a Caf delegation led by competitions director Shereen Arafa, Tarek El Deeb ( IT director), Salomon Binyam (media director) and Iman Said (marketing officer) recently toured the country, it recommended training sites and hotels and inspected broadcast facilities before engaging in a briefing with officials of the Rwanda Football Federation (Ferwafa), Ministry of Sports and Culture and the Local Organising Committee (LOC).

Speaking to Rwanda Today on May 19, Binyam commended the work done in renovating stadia and training grounds.

“Rwanda has hosted African championships before and Chan, being a tournament of a higher standard, we believe they will do everything possible to ensure it is successful,” said Binyam. “We have seen all the facilities and given our recommendations on where we think improvements should be made and we believe they will be taken into consideration.”

Saying the contractors promised to have the stadiums ready by mid-September this year, he added: “It is our hope that this deadline will be met.”

In Rubavu, the Caf inspection team visited the 7,500-seater Umuganda Stadium, the newly constructed training pitch and hotels including the Lake Kivu Serena, Gorilla Gisenyi, Stipp and Belvedere. They then toured the 10,000-seater Huye Stadium, Kamena training ground and hotels such as Credo, Ibis and Le Petit Prince.

In Kigali, they visited Stade de Kigali, Amahoro National Stadium, training grounds at the Ferwafa ground next to Amahoro and also KIST Stadium. Hotels visited included the Kigali Serena, Umubano and Sports View.

LOC chairman Vincent Nzamwita, the Ferwafa president, said: “We have been given recommendations on all venues. All stakeholders were present and we believe all the necessary works will be completed in the agreed time.

“They will be back for the final inspection in September and we believe everything will have been done accordingly.”

A total of 42 teams were in involved in the Chan draw, which was based on zonal allocations of the national associations affiliated to Caf, on April 5 in Cairo. In the qualifiers, due June 19-21 to August 28-30, will produce 15 teams that will join the hosts in the finals of the quadrennial tournament.

Amavubi Stars have lined up several friendlies, including with South Africa on July 25 in Johannesburg, as new coach Johnny McKinstry tries to build a team that can take on the best on the continent next year.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) won the inaugural Chan title in 2009 in Cote d’Ivoire while Tunisia were crowned in 2011 in Sudan and Libya won last year’s edition in South Africa.