Malawi Government has shrugged off FAM and NAM’s sponsorship increase pleas and will later this month re-launch the Presidential Initiative for Sports (PIS) to the same tune of K120 million (about $343 000) for a fifth consecutive year.
With the kwacha devalued and floated, the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) and the Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) asked the Ministry of Youth and Sports to up the associations’ respective packages currently pegged at K60 million (about $171 428) and K30 million (about $86 000) respectively.
However, government has since written to sports associations, FAM and NAM inclusive, asking them to present their budgets for the re-launch ceremony in Mzuzu. The competition includes sports disciplines such as volleyball, athletics and lawn tennis.
On Tuesday, Jameson Ndalama, the ministry’s sports director, faulted FAM and NAM for failing to justify in writing their demands for sponsorship revision.
“We know that the figure has been like that for a long time, but we also report to our superiors and they obviously can ask for a basis for the revision. Few associations that do not even get much from the K120 million are the only ones that submitted the proposals,” said Ndalama.
But FAM chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda and NAM president Rosy Chinunda on Wednesday said they submitted the proposals seeking the sponsorship revision.
Bingu Tigresses and Big Bullets are the netball and football defending champions.
“We wrote government confirming that the amount is on the lower side. We did this through Sports Council. We had tough times to run the competition using the same K60 million to cater for youth, women, seniors and beach soccer,” said Nyirenda.
In a response to a questionnaire, Sports Council executive secretary George Jana confirmed that FAM wrote government over the package.
“However, this submission is rather incomparable to other sponsorships that they have, which are lower in levels than the PIS. We believe that while accepting that it is insufficient, the amount is good enough to run the competition,” Jana explained.
Date for the re-launch of this year’s PIS edition will be announced later.
