Sports associations share K220 million

Twenty-eight Malawi National Council of Sports’ affiliated associations have shared K220 300 009 with FAM getting a lion’s share of K130 million from which K60 million goes to the Presidential Initiative for Sports (PIS).
The council has released the breakdown of the annual grants to associations following Parliament’s approval of K1 billion budget to the Ministry of Youth and Sports from the 2014/15 National Budget.
FAM’s annual allocation has barely been maintained amid calls by the association’s president Walter Nyamilandu for the revision of the allocations, noting that lesser money is being channelled towards sports, hence the country should forget winning medals.
On the list, the Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) comes second with their package static at K30 million followed by K14 million to the Volleyball Association (VAM) whose mass volleyball project will consume K11 million.
NAM president Rosy Chinunda said recently the amount was on the lower side. But Sports Council executive secretary George Jana said the allocations “were considered against submissions by the said member associations, administration needs of the council and the available resource envelope.”
“Consequently, those associations that were not paid up as members or did not submit any programmes and budgets to the council automatically did not qualify for consideration in the 2014/15 budget. The other money from the resource budget allocation to Malawi National Council of Sports will be channelled towards administration of the Sports Council and other programmes,” Jana added.
Hockey Association of Malawi (HAM) comes fourth on the list with K8 million from which K6 million goes to the ambitious Kamuzu Stadium Upper Stadium project.
K3 million has been allocated to recently reinstated Malawi Paralympic Committee (MPC). Malawi Boxing Association (Maba) and the Malawi Pool Association (MPA) are among the lowest recipients at K1 million each.
K225 million from the budget, Sports Minister Grace Chiumia earlier indicated, will go towards paying a debt owed to a South African company for Kamuzu Stadium floodlights maintenance. n