Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has budgeted K200 million to ably manage the glamorous Malawi Sport Awards slated for Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe (BICC) on February 16.
MNCS Board Chairperson Sunduzwayo Madise said this at Mount Soche Hotel on Friday when the institution held a fundraising dinner to woo partners to support the initiative and sports in general.
Madise said they are ready for the event and that the dinner was organised to reach out to partners to meet the shortfall of about K80 million.
“We have a budget of about K200 million for the event and we, as MNCS, have K120 million. We expect companies and partners to meet the difference.
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“We do not want companies to sponsor us by feeling sorry for us. This should be a win-win situation where they also benefit a lot if they come and sponsor the event,” he said.
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Madise added that the decision to have government institutions stop sponsoring sports has negatively affected development of sports in general in the country.
“You know, in the late 90’s or thereabout, we used to have many government institutions that were sponsoring sports but not anymore. It was during those days that sports was really doing well in the country. We want companies to seriously sponsor sports if we are to redeem sports,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the sponsors, Rab Processors Marketing and Communications Manager Andrew Lulker expressed delight at being considered to be one of the sponsors for the Malawi Sport Awards.
“We are a company that is already into sports, having been sponsoring the Southern Region Football Association (SRFA) through our product Thumbs Up. We can assure MNCS of our sponsorship for the event,” Lulker said.
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Some of the companies that attended the dinner were TNM, NBS Bank, Blantyre Water Board and Egenco.
There will be about 17 categories during this year’s Malawi Sport Awards ceremony.
Flames striker Frank Gabadinho Mhango and Scorchers forward Tabitha Chawinga are some of the previous winners for male and female footballer, respectively.
