Sports Council flexes muscle on affiliates funding

Malawi National Council of Sports (MNSC) has opened a two-week window  to  give an opportunity to sports associations to apply for annual subvention.

Last week, Parliament passed the Mid-Year Budget Review with the Ministry of Youth and Sports allocation in the 2020/21 National Budget revised upwards from K7.3 billion to K8.4 billion, an increment of K1.1 billion.

Following the passing of the budget review, Sports Council called on associations to submit their budgets.

MNCS acting executive secretary Henry Mereka said in an interview that beginning this week they will scrutinise applications or proposals of associations to see if they merit funding.

“We have asked sports federations/associations to submit their budgets, detailed plans of activities, development plans and financial accounts reports on how they performed in the previous calendar. We want seriousness on the part of sports federations,” he said.

Mereka said Sports Council  also wants to see if associations have offices and functional secretariat.

“It is not like we are trying to punish associations, but we want to encourage them to operate in a professional manner. We want each association to produce a realistic strategic plan as to what it is they want to achieve within a certain period,” he said.

Volleyball Association of Malawi general secretary Jairos Nkhoma said they received K4 million out of a K35 million budget they submitted for the 2020/21 financial year.

He said: “We are yet to make the budget for 2021/22, but we already submitted our 2020/21 Budget.

“It is our hope that the allocation will increase our allocation for the 2021 to 2022 financial year. We have lined up a number of activities for 2021 calendar.”

Nkhoma cited youth development programmes to reach out to primary and secondary schools as well as drop-outs in building the national team.

 He also said they have lined up All Stars games this year.

“As for capacity building, we plan to conduct  coaching and sports management courses. This is the only way we can maintain the good progression of our athletes.

“We shall have national tournaments and host beach volleyball games along the lake,” said Nkhoma.

Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Association of Malawi vice-president Bright Limani said they have already submitted their budget and plans.

“We are ready and our general secretary has already submitted a budget of K5 million which will cover a number of activities. We plan to have Mr Malawi Bodybuiding competition which failed last week. We also plan to have national weightlifting competitions,” he said.

Limani said he is hopeful that Sports Council will honour their application considering that in the previous financial year they got only K1 million.

Malawi Amateur Boxing Association (Maba) submitted its budget application on Tuesday, according vice-president Francis Kadzakalowa.

“As such, we don’t even have funds to stage national tournaments let alone take part in international tournaments like Regional 5, and the upcoming Commonwealth Games qualifiers. We really are pressed,” he said.

Maba were one of the successful applicants last year getting K20 million which went towards procurement of boxing rings and other equipment.