Malawi supports African Netball Championship hosting

Malawi Government has made a commitment to help the Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) in hosting a successful African Netball Championship slated for June.

Malawi’s Minister of Youth and Sports Enoch Chihana made the pledge when he toured Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC), the venue for the competition.

Chihana has directed the immediate rehabilitation of the facility in readiness for the event.

“This is an important competition for the development of our netball. We need to host it with pride and to our very best.

“The court needs uplifting and we will erect stands between now and the end of May. We will also give all the necessary financial backing to ensure we host a successful event,” said Chihana.

Newly elected NAM general secretary Carol Bapu thanked government for the timely bailout. She admitted that the country has not done enough in preparing for the games.

“But we can blame all that on lack of working capacity at NAM as we were preparing for elections. But now, as a new committee, we will step up a gear. We are meeting on Wednesday to plan. We have almost six weeks to prepare and with the government support we will make it,” she said.

Malawi got the mandate to host the event last year after winning the competition hosted by Tanzania.

This will be the first time NAM hosts an international competition since the 2006 Cosana Netball Championship.